Programmed Lives: Third Stage
by Sanae
Summary: After moving from GT300 onto GT500 everything seems perfect for the Takahashi Racing Team until a sudden tragedy puts an end to the dream.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Initial D, Shigeno-sensei and the Kodansha Publishing Company do.

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Prologue_

Maebashi - May 2011

Being the last day of the Golden Week and with everyone having gone to the more touristy places of the country, everything was exceptionally quiet in Gunma's capital city. This should have been also true for the area in the outskirts of Maebashi where the Takahashi's had their motor sports centre. However, the loud drone of running engines disrupted the neighbourhood's peace.

In fact, in the centre's small kart track, one could see two small vehicles chasing each other:

'Come on Seisuke! You're so slow!' eight year old Kyosuke shouted so his younger brother could hear him over the engine of his kart.

'Hey! Who are you calling slow?' Seisuke protested and, just to prove a point, the seven year old accelerated so his kart could catch up with that of his older brother who seeing that, pressed the accelerator pedal of his kart so he could again put some distance between his and Seisuke's small vehicle.

Kyosuke laughed as he did so and was about to tease his brother once more when he heard the noise of another engine that wasn't his nor Seisuke's, turning round so he could see what was going on, he saw it: a third kart was coming towards Seisuke's at an alarmingly high speed. What was worse was that Seisuke, concentrated as he was on catching up with him, didn't even seem to have noticed.

'Seisuke! Watch out…' he didn't even have the time to finish his warning when the third kart, having already reached Seisuke's, steered towards the outside of the corner and, in one swift move, one Kyosuke couldn't help but to admire, overtook a completely unprepared Seisuke making him spin his kart in the process.

'What the…' Kyosuke said pressing the brake pedal of his kart so it would stop across the track so the third kart would have to stop too. He removed his seatbelt and helmet as fast as he could while his brother was doing the very same thing, then Kyosuke jumped out of his kart and ran towards the unknown driver who being sandwiched between their two karts was unable to go ahead nor backwards.

Seisuke, having arrived there first, took the driver by the arm and started shaking him.

'Who in the heck are you?' Kyosuke heard his brother shout, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers was livid with fury.

'Seisuke, let him get out of the kart,' Kyosuke said standing there crossing his arms on his chest. His brother obeyed, very reluctantly, and took a couple of steps backwards as to leave the driver some room to get out of the vehicle.

Slowly, the driver unfastened his seatbelt and pushed himself up to step out of the kart. Only then he removed his helmet, and as he did so, the two Takahashi brothers realised that the insanely fast driver was a kid who looked even younger than Seisuke.

'We asked you a question,' Kyosuke repeated taking a step towards this kid menacingly. The kid remained standing there looking almost bored by the whole thing.

'What's going on in here?' a man's voice suddenly asked and, only then, the unknown kid's eyes widened. He turned round and as he tried to run away the man took two long steps towards him and, grabbing the kid by one of his arms, he asked:

'Who are you? Do you know that this is a private property?'

The kid looked up at him and, slowly, the fear in his eyes became something more similar to defiance:

'Let go of my arm, now,' the kid said.

The two Takahashi brothers couldn't believe that a brat like that one could speak to their adored uncle in such disrespectful manner.

They were even more surprised when they saw their uncle release the kids arm and say:

'Alright, now, what's your name?'

'Fujiwara Akito,' the kid finally replied and Kyosuke and Seisuke saw his uncle's eyes first widen in shock then, his gaze turned soft as a frown appeared on his face.

'Oh my god,' Keisuke said and then he did something strange: he got on his knees and hugged the kid.

'Hey, what in the heck are you doing?' the kid said trying to free himself from the man's grasp. Keisuke distanced himself from the kid without letting him go and still crouching next the kid, he asked, adopting a very gentle tone of voice:

'Of course you can't remember me! You were nothing but a tiny baby when I last saw you.'

'What? Do you know me?' Akito asked and his confused face reminded Keisuke very much of his old friend Takumi's.

'I'm Takahashi Keisuke. I used to race with your father,' Keisuke said and the kid's face lit up in realisation.

'Ah, yeah, I know of you, Dad and I came here today because he wants to speak to you,' the kid said.

Keisuke was about to ask Akito the whereabouts of his father when he saw Takumi approaching the group. The youngest of the Rotary Brothers didn't even bother to hide his surprise at seeing his former team-mate, best enemy and long term friend standing there before him.

'Akito, I've been looking for you all over the place!' Keisuke heard Takumi say.

It had been almost six years since Keisuke had seen Takumi and, just looking at him was enough to bring back loads of very painful memories.

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter One

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter One_

Suzuka Circuit – Six Years Before

The GT500 season was about to start and the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team, after winning both titles of the GT300, had entered the GT500 category with a brand new SE3P, built, prepared and tuned specially for them by Mazda.

Even so, the change of class meant that the team had to work even harder and, at the end, it had been a massive struggle just to finish the championship in third position.

This year though, the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had an extra motivation to do even better than that. In fact, for their Team Manager, Ryosuke Takahashi, his involvement in the racing industry was coming to an end for he had made a commitment with both his father and his father-in-law so, at the end of the season, he would join them and his wife in the management of the Takahashi-Arakawa Group.

So, if the team's determination was at the highest point ever, Keisuke's was even higher than that. He had seen how happy Ryosuke'd been when his team had won the GT300 and, before he moved on to his medical career, Keisuke wanted his older brother to achieve everything he could and that, of course, included the GT500 trophy.

'Darling, your brother wants you to join them in the box,' Kyoko said approaching her husband interrupting his train of thoughts.

'Alright,' he said nodding then he asked, 'how are you feeling?'

'Not too bad, the nausea's not as horrible as in the past few weeks,' Kyoko replied putting her hand on her still flat tummy, she was only in her third month of pregnancy after all. Keisuke still remembered the day when she told him she was expecting as one of the happiest days of his life.

'Yeah, Akiko said it would get better as you got further along,' Keisuke commented and Kyoko nodded.

'I can't believe she's been through this twice! She's nuts,' Kyoko commented now shaking her head in disbelief.

'I've always said that, but nobody's listened to me so far,' Keisuke said and Kyoko started laughing.

'Now, go before your brother tells you off for being late,' Kyoko said shooing him while still looking amused.

Keisuke entered the team's box to find three year old Kyosuke sitting on the floor playing with a few tools that Matsumoto had given him. Meanwhile, Akiko was trying to prevent her other son Seisuke from climbing into the racing car as the mechanics worked on it.

'Seisuke, how many times do I have to tell you not to go anywhere near the car?' Akiko said taking the almost two year old toddler in her arms. Then she walked to her oldest son and said, 'Kyosuke, let's go to the motorhome, daddy's got to work now.'

'But Mum,' the kid started to protest.

'Kyosuke, do as your mother says,' Ryosuke said.

'Okay,' Kyosuke said getting up from the floor not hiding his deep disappointment as he did so.

'Hey, once we finish the training session, you two can come back and play, alright?' Ryosuke said tousling his son's hair making him smile instantly. Ryosuke saw his wife as she rolled her eyes. He looked at her and smiled.

'Softy,' she muttered to him but she too smiled at him.

As she left with Seisuke firmly held in her arms and Kyosuke following her as fast as his short legs would carry him, Takumi entered the box followed by his father.

'Hey, how was Hawaii?' Keisuke asked his team mate as he joined him so they could listen to Ryosuke's usual pre-race speech.

'Great, the Kilauea was terrific and they have fantastic mountain passes there,' Takumi explained enthusiastically. It was amazing the influence his girlfriend Minami had had in him in the four years they had been together. No longer an air-headed kid, the new-and-improved Takumi was as cheerful and enjoyed his life almost as much as Keisuke himself did.

Just a couple of months after winning the GT300 championship, Takumi had moved into the house Minami shared with her mother and, shortly after that, Takumi and Minami had decided to reveal to the world that they were an item. The commotion this news caused was phenomenal since both Takumi and Minami were very well known in their fields.

The press had become completely crazy having the classic beautiful, famous pop star dates young and handsome sportsman story and it had happened numerous times throughout the past years that they appeared together in some magazine or newspaper.

The whole country seemed to wait for the day when the couple would announce their engagement but, since they were both too young, Takumi had just turned twenty four and Minami was two years younger than that, marriage was not in the picture, at least not in the near future.

'Where is Minami?' Keisuke asked looking around for the singer.

'She's not going to come to this race because she's recording her new album,' Takumi explained, 'what about Kyoko? Is she feeling any better?'

'Yeah, Akiko says that as she enters the fourth month the morning sickness should disappear completely,' Keisuke said.

They stopped talking as Ryosuke, clearing his throat, started giving everyone a quick summary of the track conditions and the strategy they would adopt for the next day's qualifying session. It felt great to see that everyone in the team was perfectly synchronised and, being used to the routine of a GT500 race, they all knew what to do and when.

'I'll be off then,' Takumi said starting the SE and preparing himself for the first run of the testing session.

'Sure, we've tried to do something different with the suspension, tell us what you think,' Matsumoto said.

'Okay,' Takumi replied as the car started moving forward.

He had feared that, as the team's and his own fame increased, his job would be more and more difficult but soon Takumi realised that the piece of advice his father had given him at the beginning of his professional career still applied. Once he was in the car and on the track, there was nothing else but that: him, the car and the track.

And Takumi loved it.

He simply couldn't see himself doing anything else in his life but to drive as fast as he could, enjoying the adrenaline rush he got every time he thought he was pushing the car a bit beyond its limits just to discover that he still had some more room to keep pushing.

Granted, they had seen very dark moments, like when their engine blew up half way through their second race in the GT500, or when they failed to score a single point in two races in a row. Those had been really hard times for everyone but, with Ryosuke's constant support and encouragement, the team had always overcome every difficulty.

Ryouske Takahashi: his boss, the most important person in Takumi's life after his own father and Minami.

Takumi thanked the heavens every morning for being so lucky. He got paid to do something he would actually pay to do and he had a team that did everything in their power to make sure he could drive as fast as he wanted while still being as safe as possible.

On top of that, he had a wonderful girlfriend. Yes, Takumi Fujiwara was a very lucky man.

With the SE, he drove several laps around Suzuka circuit. Nowadays Takumi knew the track almost as well as the downhill at Mt Akina and he knew exactly the lines he had to take in order to get the best times according to the track's conditions.

'Matsumoto, the suspension feels great, if Keisuke agrees, let's leave it this way,' Takumi said talking to the radio while negotiating the circuit's famous hairpin.

'Sure,' Matsumoto said, 'Ryosuke wants you to increase the speed up to an eighty percent.'

'Sure thing,' Takumi said and back at the boxes the team knew that their driver was more than happy to comply with that order.

'He's as nuts as ever,' Keisuke said joining his brother at the pit lane's wall.

'Yeah, he is,' Ryosuke agreed.

The next day, it was raining quite heavily but that wasn't a major problem: the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team managed to place their car in the second position, just behind the Celica ZZT231 from the Tsuchiya team.

'Hey, tomorrow we're going to have fun,' Keiichi said to his old friend Bunta Fujiwara.

'Yeah, make sure you leave plenty of room for us, it'd be a pity if we had to scratch your paintwork as we overtake you,' Bunta said making Keiichi laugh.

'There they go again,' Keisuke commented as they prepared themselves for a brand new discussion, seeing the two men tease each other had become one of the main attractions in the pit lane.

Takumi shook his head and said:

'I'm off to get a nap.'

He walked to the motorhome and, before entering it, took his phone out of his pocket and called Minami.

'Hey honey,' she said answering.

'Hey, how's it going?' Takumi asked.

'Not as well as I hoped, the rhythm is all bad and we've got to keep stopping to rearrange the lyrics. It's rather annoying, even more because it's making me miss the first race of the season…'

Takumi laughed softly.

'You know, sometimes I wonder if you're upset that you can't be with me or you're just upset because you're missing the race…'

'Er…the first, of course,' she said but Takumi knew that his girlfriend had become quite an avid fan of the Super GT races. She hardly missed any of the races and she always made sure someone taped every one of them for her so she could re-watch them as many times as she wanted.

'Anyway, the way things are, I don't think there will be much excitement tomorrow,' she said.

'Why not?' Takumi asked.

'Well, babe, you're going to crush them, aren't you?' Minami asked with her voice in full fan-mode.

Takumi laughed again.

'Of course,' he replied.

'That's my man,' she said proudly, 'now I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow…'

'Yep,' Takumi said.

'I love you,' she said as they hung up, making Takumi cringe: Minami always seemed to beat him when it came to saying 'I love you' to him. He made a mental note to be faster the next time.

Takumi finally went inside the motorhome only to find little Kyosuke sleeping on one of the couches while Akiko fed Seisuke his late afternoon meal.

'Going to get some sleep?' Akiko asked seeing him there.

'Yeah,' Takumi replied.

'Ah, we'll…'

'No, don't worry, I'll be alright,' he said for he didn't really mind having the two kids there. He had grown to love Ryosuke and Akiko's kids as if they were his nephews too and they seemed to love playing with Takumi almost as much as they did with their biological uncle.

He caressed Seisuke's head as he made his way to the small berth he used while the team was at the circuits making the kid smile. Takumi didn't think he had been sleeping for more than a few minutes when someone entering his room woke him up.

'Takumi! Hey, Takumi, wake up! It's a disaster!'

'What?' Takumi mumbled with his voice sounding as sleepy as he felt.

'Get up,' Keisuke said and, very reluctantly, Takumi obeyed.

'What's up?' Takumi said yawning widely.

'The Federation: they're investigating our car!' Keisuke announced.

'Why?' Takumi asked now fully awake.

'Apparently, they think we've used some illegal mix of petrol,' Keisuke explained.

'What? That's…'

'…bollocks, I know,' Keisuke agreed.

Takumi got up and followed Keisuke outside of the motorhome, the kids were no longer in the motorhome and Takumi assumed Akiko had taken them to the small camper Ryosuke had for his and his family's personal use.

Running after Keisuke, both drivers reached the team's garage as they saw one of the Federation officials leave it.

'What's up?' Keisuke asked his brother who looked rather sombre.

'They have detected traces of a forbidden component in the gasoline we used yesterday…' Ryosuke started explaining.

'Is that true?' Takumi asked.

'They tested the sample we gave them…' Fumihiro replied.

'But Aniki…'

'Keisuke, there isn't anything we can do,' Ryosuke said.

'But we didn't do anything wrong, did we?' Takumi asked, refusing to leave the issue alone.

'I don't think so, no, but the truth of the matter is: if someone tampered with our sample, we have no way to prove it,' Ryosuke explained.

'We could give them another sample,' Keisuke proposed.

'We've already tried: they said that unfortunately, the one that counts is the one we presented them with at the beginning of the weekend,' Matsumoto explained.

'So, what's going to happen now?' Takumi asked.

'You're going to have to start from the back of the grid,' Bunta Fujiwara said taking part in the conversation for the first time.

'Yeah, it was that or we packed up and went home,' Fumihiro added.

'I'm going to go and think up a new strategy for tomorrow,' Ryosuke announced then he left the garage followed by Fumihiro and Matsumoto.

'This is bullshit,' Keisuke said kicking one of the toolboxes.

'Well, you know what this means, don't you?' Bunta said talking to his son.

'Yeah, it's going to be fun,' Takumi said and his father nodded.

'Argh, you two are crazy,' Keisuke said but the fire that burned in his eyes told the two Fujiwara that he agreed with them wholeheartedly.

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter Two

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Two_

It felt extraordinarily weird to see so many cars in front of him. For the first time since he had begun his professional racing career, Keisuke was forced to start the race at the back of the grid and, despite all of Ryosuke's assurances, he couldn't help but to think that getting the car anywhere near the first positions would be nothing short of impossible.

'Remember what I said Keisuke, take it easy,' Ryosuke's voice came through the radio as the grid started clearing from all the support staff.

'Yeah, well, these guys here aren't going to let me do otherwise,' Keisuke said referring to the thirty odd cars he had ahead of him.

'Don't worry,' Ryosuke insisted, 'just drive as you usually do.'

'Got it,' Keisuke said then, proceeded to prepare himself for the imminent start of the race. He usually loved those moments when he heard all the engines roaring around him and he felt his senses sharpen and his body tense up. Right now though, Keisuke had to fight the urge to floor the accelerator and overtake as many cars as possible for the sake of sticking to his brother's strategy.

He still didn't understand how taking it easy during the first few laps would later on help him overtake any of the cars ahead of him but his brother had asked him to trust him and that was something Keisuke could do with his eyes shut.

Even so, as the semaphore turned green, seeing all the cars pulling away from his was a very hard blow for Keisuke's ego.

'Easy,' Ryosuke said, almost whispering.

Goddamit Aniki, get out of my head! Keisuke thought frustrated that his brother almost always knew what Keisuke was thinking.

The first few laps were absolutely excruciating, especially since he had his car's front permanently attached to a GT300 one.

'Fantastic,' Keisuke muttered as he realised that the car in question belonged to one of the rookie teams. He would have to pay extra attention so, in case the driver made a mistake, he would have plenty of time to avoid crashing against it.

After what seemed like an eternity, Keisuke heard the words he'd been dying to hear.

'Keisuke, for the next ten laps you can push it as much as you want.'

'About bloody time,' he said making sure his brother understood how very frustrated he was. He heard Ryosuke's soft laughter. The bastard seemed to be having fun…

Keisuke would have shaken his head had it not been because now, more than ever, he needed his gaze to be fixed firmly ahead of him.

One after one, Keisuke overtook something like fifteen cars developing some sort of dance routine: getting closer up, pushing them a little, feinting and then, as they thought themselves safe, overtake them to show them how wrong they were.

This made Keisuke understand Ryosuke's strategy: by preserving himself and the car during the first few laps he could now do what the other drivers were too tired to try and, on top of that, Keisuke had his mounted frustration fuelling him up his will to go as fast as he could.

'Right, Keisuke, take it easy again. Next stint is in five laps time,' Ryosuke said.

Keisuke just grunted. He adored his brother but sometimes Ryosuke really knew how to ruin one's fun.

Finally, and with his car in eighth position, Keisuke was called back into the boxes.

'You did very well, thank you,' Matsumoto said handing him a towel so he could dry himself a bit as he observed Takumi get into the car.

'You were superb,' Kenta agreed as usual looking at his former mentor with his dark eyes full of admiration.

Keisuke just nodded as he sat down to watch his team mate's progression.

'Hey, how come he gets to push it in his first lap out?' Keisuke asked Matsumoto.

'I'm not sure but, apparently, you did so well during your run that Ryosuke has decided to adopt his second strategy…'

'Brilliant, I do all the work and Takumi has the fun,' Keisuke complained pouting like a five year old kid. This made his team's mechanics laugh out loud.

While Kirin Takahashi Racing Team didn't score a victory, Takumi still managed to give them a podium finish and Ryosuke, for once, didn't spare himself when it came to complimenting his drivers and the rest of the team.

'Hey Bunta,' Keiichi said coming into the box as the team was packing up to go home, 'can I have a word?'

'Of course,' Bunta said following him.

Fumihiro looked at Ryosuke who just shrugged. By now, the team was more than used to Bunta's rather unorthodox behaviour.

'Look, I've heard what happened to you guys,' Keiichi started as the two men had reached a quiet spot of the pit lane.

'Yeah, don't worry about that,' Bunta said shaking his head.

'Why not? Clearly someone is playing dirty,' Keiichi said.

'We know. The boss is taking care of it,' Bunta said and Keiichi had to repress a chuckle hearing Bunta referring to anyone as 'his boss'. Of course, Keiichi knew better than to think that anyone could make the older man obey any orders.

'Alright then, I hope Ryosuke knows what he's doing,' Keiichi said and Bunta's facial expression went back to his blank, unreadable one.

'See you later,' Bunta said and, considering the conversation finished, he turned round and left. Keiichi shook his head and smiled to himself.

Bunta got back to the box as Takumi entered it already changed and with his bag packed up.

'Guys, if you don't need me, I'll head back home now,' he said.

'It's fine, drive carefully,' Ryosuke said for he knew that the young man had a long drive back to Tokyo and, after the extenuating race he didn't want Takumi to get home too late.

'Say hi to Minami from me,' Kyoko said as she and Keisuke prepared themselves to leave the circuit too.

'Sure,' Takumi said before walking out of the team's garage to head back to the legendary 86 he still drove.

He knew that it was getting rather old but he didn't care, he would drive his beloved car till the day it could no longer run and, having as it had such good mechanics taking care of it, that day was very, very far away.

Driving as carefully as Ryosuke had advised, Takumi made it home only after a few hours of following a boring motorway route.

'Minami, I'm home!' he shouted as he left his shoes and his bag at the house's entrance. Not getting any reply, he decided that Minami was probably in the music room playing the piano so he climbed the stairs and walked to that room.

Even after all these years, he still wasn't used to a house where one couldn't be heard from the entrance even when shouting.

'That's a really sad melody,' Takumi commented going into the room where Minami kept her musical instruments.

'Really?' Minami asked frowning.

'Yeah, it was beautifully played but it was really sad.'

'I still don't know why you don't want me to teach you play the piano,' Minami commented and Takumi couldn't help but to think that she was avoiding the issue.

'Nah, it's too complicated,' Takumi said sitting next to her in front of the instrument.

'But it's got pedals too,' Minami pointed out.

'What's wrong?' Takumi asked and Minami switched her gaze from him to the piano's keys.

'Nothing,' she said unconvincingly.

Takumi considered pressing the issue but then, remembering what she had told him the previous day about her disastrous album recording session, he decided that she probably felt a bit down and, Takumi knew his girlfriend well enough to know that she'd speak to him whenever she was ready to do so.

'We didn't win,' he said and this made Minami look back at him.

'I know. Why did you get punished? On TV they didn't mention the reason.'

Takumi and Minami spent the next few minutes talking about it until, since they both were getting hungry, went to the kitchen to get a late supper.

'Where's your Mum?' Takumi asked as they ate their home-made soba sitting at the kitchen's table.

'She's visiting a friend. She'll be away the whole of next week,' Minami explained and Takumi had to fight to keep a straight face: a whole week without his girlfriend's mother was a nice thing to look forward to. Not that the poor woman was too much of a bother, in fact Takumi hardly saw her and she always tried her best to guarantee the couple a lot of privacy but, knowing they had the house to themselves was simply great.

'Hey, I know what you're thinking,' Minami said pointing at him with the chopsticks pretending to be offended. Takumi, caught red-handed, felt his cheeks get a notch warmer.

'Do you blame me?' he said brazenly hoping Minami would, as usual, just laugh with him.

'Forget it, I'm busy with the album,' she said instead and Takumi making a rather sour looking face, said:

'I get it.'

Seeing that she didn't even smile at that, Takumi got, once more, the distinct impression that something was wrong with his girlfriend that night but he stayed firm in his resolution to let her be the one coming to him.

'Ah, Kyoko and Keisuke are coming on Wednesday for dinner, you remember, don't you?' Takumi said.

'Yes, I do. Don't worry, I'll be here,' Minami said and then, without finishing her food, she said, 'I'm going to bed now, are you coming with me?'

'Definitely, I'm knackered,' Takumi replied.

The next day, as Takumi opened his eyes, he realised he was on his own on their bed. Getting up, he saw a handwritten note on his bedside table, picking it up, he read it:

_'I'll be at the studio till late but I should be home for dinner. Love, Minami.'_

Great, he had the whole day to himself, Takumi thought bitterly. He had been looking forward to spending sometime with Minami and then he found himself with absolutely nothing to do.

He decided to drive to Shibukawa to see what Itsuki was up to. He, Iketani and Kenji had opened their own garage, with Itsuki and Iketani taking care of the repairs while Kenji managed the bookkeeping.

Iketani saw him as he parked the AE86 just outside the garage and Takumi greeted him as he got out of the car.

'Hey, who are you?' Iketani said jokingly.

'It hasn't been that long,' Takumi complained but Iketani had a fair point: the last time they had seen each other had been when Iketani and Mako had become man and wife about three months before. He still couldn't believe that Mako had been happy to wait until Iketani had set up his own business for them to get married.

'Yes it has,' Iketani said just as Itsuki, after finishing with a customer, joined the group.

'Takumi!' his friend, as usual, shouted while hugging him. Takumi was so used to this that he didn't even flinch.

'Hello Itsuki,' Takumi said once he was free from his friend's grasp.

'He's got a new girlfriend,' Iketani announced.

'Another one?' Takumi asked looking amused. Ever since Itsuki had dated a supermodel like Mariko, his self-confidence had reached dangerously high levels and now, Itsuki was quite the Casanova.

'Yeah, she was cute and I thought, why not? I'll give her a chance,' Itsuki said with the face of someone who had just done a huge favour to mankind.

'Itsuki, how about if you just stick to one girl?' Takumi asked.

'What? No way, man, that'd be bad…there are too many chicks in this world and, unfortunately for them, only one of me.'

Yeah, Itsuki had definitely become quite insufferable when it came to women. Thankfully, his driving still left loads to be desired so Iketani and Takumi still could make fun of him in that particular field.

Takumi was very happy to be able to spend some time with his oldest friends and, after having lunch with them, he went to pay a quick visit to his father before heading back home, looking forward to spending some time with Minami.

'Hey, how are you?' he asked her when he heard her coming into their living room where Takumi was watching some random movie.

'I'm alright,' she said but Takumi saw that she looked quite pale.

'Hey, come here,' Takumi said patting the bit of the sofa next to him. She obeyed and sat down and Takumi asked, 'What's up? You look very tired…'

'Yeah…I…' Minami started then, looking away from him, she said, 'it's just work…'

Takumi looked at her as she kept staring at the carpeted floor.

'Minami…'

'Look, I'm alright, okay,' she said and she got up from the sofa with every intention of leaving the room only that, as she did so, she swayed so badly that it made her come back down on the couch.

Takumi managed to grab her so she could sit up.

'What in the heck is wrong with you?' he asked but applied his gentlest tone of voice as he spoke.

'Nothing,' she repeated but, this time, Takumi didn't believe her.

'Look, I know something is wrong. Please, tell me.'

She shook her head no and then started crying making Takumi feel extremely freaked out.

'Hey, baby,' Takumi whispered while putting her head on his shoulder, hugging her as tenderly as he could.

She just kept sobbing as quietly as she could.

'Minami, what's happened? Has anyone done anything to you?' he asked starting to feel some irrational rage just at the very thought someone had dared to hurt her in anyway.

She nodded.

'Who?' he asked as his fury was starting to become obvious in his voice.

'You,' she whispered startling Takumi.

'Me? What have I done?' Takumi asked feeling completely at a loss while raking his brain trying to find something he could have done to make her cry like this.

She then separated herself from him and with her eyes all red and full of tears, she looked up at him and said:

'I'm pregnant.'

_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter Three

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Three_

Everything went surreally quiet till Takumi, forcing himself to remember how to speak, said:

'Are you sure?'

Minami widened her eyes and looked at him looking somewhere in between shocked and disappointed.

'Of course I'm sure. Do you think I'd tell you if I weren't?

'No, of course not, is just that I thought you were on the pill,' Takumi said feeling quite idiotic.

'I am, well, I was, the doctor told me to stop taking it when he told me I was pregnant,' she said.

'But, I thought…

'Look, the pill is not one hundred percent effective, alright?' Minami barked still sounding extremely upset.

Takumi looked away from her and was trying to come up with something to say when she said:

'I can't have it.'

'What?' Takumi said, almost shouting.

'Takumi, we're not ready for this,' Minami said miserably.

'Wait, what are you saying?' Takumi asked beginning to feel panicky.

'I don't know,' Minami started saying.

'You can't be thinking of…' Takumi said interrupting himself for he was unable to finish the thought, let alone the sentence.

'I said I don't know. Look, I need some time to think,' Minami said, her voice sounding a bit firmer than earlier then, looking at his stunned face, she said, 'just look at you: you couldn't be any more freaked out.'

'No! Wait…' Takumi said.

'Don't even try to say you're happy about this!' Minami exclaimed angrily.

'STOP IT!' Takumi finally shouted getting up from the sofa so he could face her properly. Then, taking a deep breath so he could calm down enough so he could try to speak normally, he said: 'you have no idea of what I'm thinking or how I feel about this.'

'I do! Just look at you!' she repeated getting up from the couch too, 'you can't look any more freaked out!'

'Of course I'm freaked out Minami! You just told me you're pregnant for crying out loud! I think you should afford me some time to get used to the idea.'

Minami looked at him briefly before sitting back down on the sofa.

'I'm sorry, is just that I'm freaked out myself. And _I_ have had a whole week to get used to the idea.'

'You've known for a whole week and you didn't tell me?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, you needed to focus on your race,' Minami replied.

'My what? Minami, this is way more important than my racing,' Takumi said.

'Really?' she asked sceptically.

'Yes!' he insisted, 'we're going to be parents! It's huge!'

'I don't know,' Minami said.

'Look, Minami, I know it's too soon, I know we're too young…but, I don't even want to consider…no, no way, we're not doing that.'

'Takumi, I just don't know if…'

Takumi knelt in front of her and, taking her hands in his, he said:

'We'll be great parents. We will. You're going to be a fantastic mother, please…Minami…'

Minami looked at him frowning:

'Just let me consider my options, alright?'

'Minami…'

'Please, I really need some time to think.'

Takumi frowned too and, even though every fibre in his body wanted to scream at her that he didn't agree with that, he forced himself to nod and say:

'Fair enough, you win.'

'Thanks,' Minami said.

'But please, promise to me you won't do anything without telling me first,' Takumi said pleadingly.

Minami nodded then, removing her hands from his grasp, she got up and walked out of the room leaving Takumi still kneeling in front of the now empty sofa. Slowly, he got up and, sitting back down on the settee, he put his elbows on his knees and hid his face in his hands.

The next few days, and despite Takumi's best efforts, things between him and Minami had noticeably cooled down and, except for the strictly necessary, they didn't exchange more than a few words every day.

'Do you want me to cancel with Keisuke and Kyoko?' he asked on Wednesday morning as they had breakfast together.

'No, it's fine,' she said.

'I can tell them that you're not feeling well,' Takumi insisted.

'No, I said it's alright,' Minami said a tad more loudly.

'Fine,' Takumi said and, as Minami got up from her chair, Takumi said: 'I love you Minami.'

She looked at him briefly then, turning round, she left the room.

Takumi threw a punch at the table knowing he'd get a bruise on his hand later on. He actually welcomed the pain since it distracted him from the angst that had been gnawing at him ever since Minami had given him the news of her pregnancy.

The truth of the matter was that Takumi was utterly terrified that his girlfriend would ultimately decide to get an abortion for he knew that there was no way he could forgive her for doing that and that would surely mean the end of their relationship.

It wasn't that he was against abortion per-se, in fact, he had never bothered with forming an opinion about the subject. However, Takumi had grown more and more used to the idea of becoming a father and, right now, he really was happy about the whole thing and was really looking forward to it.

This made him even more afraid of the fact that, if Minami decided to terminate the pregnancy, there would be nothing he could do to prevent it: after all, it was her body and, since they weren't married, he didn't think there was anything he could do from the legal point of view.

It was in these low spirits, that the two of them welcomed Keisuke and Kyoko to their home.

'Hello Minami!' Kyoko said hugging Minami who, even though she had put on a bit of make up, still looked rather pale.

'Hello Kyoko. How are you feeling?'

'Fantastic, I haven't felt sick in two days now!' she said as if that was a huge accomplishment, 'how about you?'

'Oh, you know, tired. Work is very intense these days,' Minami said trying to justify her pallor.

'Hey, is everything alright?' Keisuke asked Takumi as the two men greeted each other, his tone of voice denoting that he had detected that something was not right.

'Yeah,' Takumi said damning Keisuke for being so freaking intuitive.

Keisuke frowned clearly not believing his team mate but he seemed to decide to forget about it.

The two couples quickly sat down at the table where the housemaid had set the meal they would be eating.

'This looks delicious!' Kyoko exclaimed looking at the different dishes that were lying on the table.

'Hey, I think it's the first time I've heard you say that in months,' Keisuke said laughing.

'I know, I've been feeling so sick that I didn't feel like eating at all but now, I don't know, I'd eat a whole horse!' Kyoko said.

'Now let's not exaggerate with the food, I don't want you to get massive,' Keisuke said earning himself a smack on the back of his head. 'Oi! That hurt!'

'Don't say such rude things then!' Kyoko said and, at this point, both Takumi and Minami looked at each other and, for the first time in days, the two started laughing together.

'So, what have you decided to do about the house?' Minami asked.

'Well, so far it's been great living in the apartment in Akiko and Ryosuke's house but, once the baby is born, we're going to need a proper house so, I think we're going to move to the one my parents got for us when we got married,' Keisuke explained.

'I still don't know why you didn't move there immediately after the wedding,' Takumi commented and Kyoko let out a chuckle.

'He couldn't face the separation from his beloved Aniki,' she said.

'It's not that,' he tried denying.

'Yes it is, that's why you insisted for your parents to buy us the house next to your brother's,' Kyoko said.

'That's just because it's a really nice house and the price was good,' Keisuke said justifying himself.

'Alright, alright,' Kyoko said waving her hand, 'in any case, I'm happy we're still going to live closely. It'll be useful having two doctors nearby and also, our baby will be able to play with Kyosuke and Seisuke.'

'Yeah, we'll have all three Takahashi boys playing together,' Keisuke said.

'It might be a girl, you know?' Kyoko said and Keisuke shook his head.

'No, it's a boy. I can tell,' he said sounding extremely sure of himself.

As the two couples continued talking and laughing, Takumi looked at Minami who caught him staring at her.

'Hey, are you two with us?' Kyoko asked noticing their strange behaviour.

'Yeah, sure,' Takumi said scratching the side of his head as he did every time he was nervous about something, 'the truth is, we've got something to tell you…' he stared then, Minami interrupted him saying:

'Yeah, the album will be ready soon so, I think we'll be having a party to celebrate its launch.'

Takumi looked at her, quickly masking his confusion as to prevent Keisuke and Kyoko from noticing anything.

'Yeah…that's it…' he said.

Takumi was only too happy when the Takahashi left their house to go back to theirs for he had been dying to speak to his girlfriend.

'You're so stupid Takumi!' she said to him instead using a very angry tone of voice.

'Why?' Takumi asked trying to remain calm.

'When did I say we could share the news with anybody?' she asked positively fuming.

'Er…you didn't but…'

'I don't want to tell anybody until I'm sure about what I want to do, alright?' Minami said firmly.

'Minami…'

'Just keep it to yourself, alright? I haven't even told my own mother for pity's sake!' she said and, before Takumi could say anything, she turned round and walked up the stairs. He then heard her slam their bedroom door and, before he could even take a step, he heard her lock it too.

'Fabulous, simply fabulous,' he said to himself sarcastically.

He then walked to the living room, sat down on the sofa and, just to avoid being in complete silence, turned the TV on and started watching the first thing he found.

Meanwhile, onboard Keisuke's FD, Kyoko was silently pondering the whole evening.

'What's up?' Keisuke asked seeing that his wife was unusually quiet.

She looked at him in the semi-darkness of the car.

'I'm not sure,' she said.

'About what?' Keisuke asked sounding confused by her worried tone of voice for she had been quite happy up to that moment. He hoped that his wife wouldn't start now having the mood swings pregnant women were so famous for.

'Didn't you notice how Minami and Takumi were all weird with each other?' she asked.

Keisuke looked at her briefly before returning his gaze to the road ahead of him.

'I noticed Takumi looked a bit more distracted than usual,' he commented.

'Yeah, that too.'

'Do you think they had an argument or something?' Keisuke asked.

'No, well, not only that,' she replied.

'What is it then?' Keisuke said beginning to get impatient for he hated the way his wife, and his brother for that matter, liked to speak so cryptically.

'I think Minami's pregnant,' she said and Keisuke had to use every one of his driving skills to keep the car on the road facing forward.

'What?' he asked once he was sure the car was stable enough.

'Didn't you notice that there weren't any alcoholic drinks during dinner?'

'Kyoko, you're pregnant, I had to drive and Minami and Takumi usually don't drink all that much,' Keisuke said.

'Yes, but she didn't eat any of the sushi,' she insisted.

'Maybe she didn't fancy any,' Keisuke countered.

'How do you explain the way she looked? Her face had the same tired look mine had during the first month of the pregnancy,' Kyoko said.

'Kyoko…'

'And I think Takumi wanted to tell us that when he said there was something he needed to tell us.'

Keisuke thought of all the points his wife had enumerated and, slowly, he realised that they all made sense.

'Oh my gosh!' he said finally accepting the possibility that his wife was actually right.

'I wonder why they didn't want us to know,' Kyoko commented.

'So do I Kyoko, so do I,' Keisuke agreed.

_To be continued…_


	5. Chapter Four

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Four_

Takumi was almost grateful that Friday had finally arrived so he could get out of the house to go to the team's training session. Life at home had become more and more difficult for him. Proof of that was that Minami hadn't even been there as Takumi ate his breakfast before heading to Maebashi.

He just wished there was something he could do to help Minami. He had even tried talking about the baby once but, seeing her storm out of the room convinced him not to try again.

'Hey, how are you?' he heard Keisuke ask as Takumi entered the garage where they kept both their official SE and the spare one.

'I'm alright,' he said and even to himself, those words seemed rather unconvincing.

'Takumi, before Aniki starts torturing us, I'd like to ask you something.'

Takumi frowned but nodded.:

'Go ahead.'

'It'll probably sound ridiculous.'

'What is it Keisuke?' Takumi said beginning to lose his already very limited patience.

'Well, you know how pregnant women are,' Keisuke said and he frowned at the way Takumi sighed, as if the younger man knew exactly what Keisuke was talking about. Maybe, after all, Kyoko had guessed right.

'Has this conversation any point at all?' Takumi asked edgily.

'Yeah, well, Kyoko thinks Minami's pregnant,' Keisuke said looking at Takumi and trying to see if he saw any tell-tale sign which would confirm Kyoko's suspicions. To Keisuke's immense surprise, Takumi's reaction to this question couldn't have been any more revealing.

He leant heavily against the wall behind his back and, hiding his face with his left hand, he said:

'I don't know what to do.'

Keisuke spent a few seconds trying to get a sentence together that would make his friend feel better then, giving up, he simply said:

'So, it's true.'

Takumi nodded and, removing the hand from his face, he said:

'Keisuke, don't tell anybody, Minami will kill me if she finds out I've told you.'

'Why?' Keisuke asked.

'Because she doesn't know if she wants to have it,' Takumi finally confessed and, this sentence seemed to relieve him of half the weight he'd been carrying on his shoulders.

'What?' Are you talking about…'

'Yeah,' Takumi said for he really didn't want to hear the word said aloud.

'Oh shit,' Keisuke said, 'man, this is…'

'I know.'

'Takumi, you want this kid, don't you?' Keisuke asked now crossing his arms in front of him.

'Yeah, I do,' Takumi admitted.

'Have you told her that?' Keisuke asked and Takumi nodded.

'But she's still not sure,' Takumi said.

'I can't believe that,' Keisuke commented and was about to say something else when they heard Ryosuke calling them both.

'Keisuke,' Takumi said putting his hand on his team mate's arm, 'please, don't say anything to anyone, alright?'

'Can I tell Kyoko? After all, she's more than suspicious now and I'm sure she'll go to Minami and ask her the question I've just asked you.'

Takumi considered this and, after a moment, he nodded.

'Yeah, tell Kyoko…but no one else, please.'

'Sure, you've got my word,' Keisuke said looking the most serious Takumi had seen him in a long time.

Takumi spent the rest of the day fighting with himself so he could focus on his driving, thankfully, Keisuke had insisted with his brother that he needed some extra practice so he was the one who spent the most time behind the wheel.

'Hey, don't worry, I'm sure she'll come round,' Keisuke started once the training session was over.

'I don't know, Minami's even more stubborn than I am,' Takumi said miserably.

'That, I cannot believe,' Keisuke said with a smirk.

'Believe me, I think I know her better than you do,' Takumi insisted.

'You surely do but, let's face it, Minami's a woman, I don't think she's really going to…you know…I think she's just scared,' Keisuke said.

'Do you think I'm not? I'm freaking out!' Takumi said increasing the tone of his voice as he spoke.

'But you said you wanted this baby.'

'Yes, I do want it, but I'm terrified that Minami will…you know…'

'I don't think she can do it without your consent,' Keisuke said.

'She can. We're not married,' Takumi said, 'She's an adult and she can do whatever she wants.'

'I'm not so sure you know. Listen, I could ask Ryosuke or Akiko, I'm sure there has to be something you can do,' Keisuke said.

'Look, I don't want to talk about it anymore, alright? Even if I could do something, it'd be too late. If it gets to the point where I have to force my opinion on her, our relationship as we know it will be over anyway…'

Keisuke considered all of that as they packed up for the day and he was driving home, following his brother's FC.

'Keisuke, is Takumi alright?' Ryosuke asked as they parked their cars in the huge garage the Takahashis had in their house.

'Yeah, don't worry,' Keisuke said and, even though he hated lying to his brother, this time he had a very good reason to do so.

'Okay. I hope that if there is anything bothering him he'll be smart enough to come to either of us for help,' Ryosuke said, as usual, having understood everything. If Ryosuke had to pay his neurons for the overtime they did, he'd be broke in no time, Keisuke thought to himself.

Keisuke and his brother separated as the former went to his small apartment while the later went to check on his kids.

'Hey darling, how was your day?' Kyoko asked getting up from the sofa in their small living room.

'Interesting, to say the least,' he said as he proceeded to explain his wife about what Takumi had told him.

'I knew it,' she said triumphantly.

'Kyoko, didn't you hear me?' Keisuke asked frowning, 'She doesn't want the baby.'

'Oh, that's rubbish!' Kyoko said.

'What are you talking about?' Keisuke asked.

'Look, there are very few cases when a woman really doesn't want to have a baby: if she had been raped, or they were completely broke, or they already had eight kids, then I'd understand,' Kyoko said, 'but I think that Minami's just very scared.'

'I think that too but.'

'Keisuke, there is no way Minami will get an abortion. She loves Takumi too much to do this to him and, besides, I'm sure, deep down, she's as thrilled as I was when I found out I was pregnant.'

'Kyoko, can I ask you something?' Keisuke said.

'Sure,' Kyoko replied.

'Did you ever consider having an abortion when you thought you were pregnant that time, before we got married?'

Kyoko looked at her husband in the eye before shaking her head:

'Never, not even for an instant.'

Keisuke then took Kyoko's head between his hands and kissed her deeply.

'Thanks,' he whispered over her mouth.

The next morning, Kyoko was a woman with a mission. She hadn't told her husband about this but she was sure everyone would be much happier after she'd have a conversation with a certain very famous, beautiful singer.

She climbed onto her black FD and, turning it on, she just enjoyed hearing the single turbo rotary engine purr like a cat. She hadn't driven her own car in ages and, even though it was beautifully kept by her husband and brother in law, she missed driving around in her beloved FD.

For this reason, and because, after all, she was a pregnant lady, she took it very easy as she drove all the way from Maebashi to the country's capital city.

'Kyoko! What a surprise!' Minami said opening the door. Kyoko had known that she'd be alone since Takumi was now with Keisuke at their Saturday training session.

'Hey, sorry I just show up like that without calling you or anything,' Kyoko said.

'Oh, don't worry about that! Come in,' Minami said showing Kyoko inside her house. Then, the singer made her way to the kitchen where she'd been enjoying a tea while reading the morning newspaper.

'The thing is, you're lucky to catch me home. I was supposed to go to a radio interview but I just didn't feel like going,' Minami said as she prepared another cup of tea for Kyoko.

'Why is that?' Kyoko asked albeit she didn't really need to ask. She could see that Minami was clearly feeling sick and the girl had two ugly shadows under her eyes. She was probably spending every night throwing up, just as she had been in the first months of her own pregnancy.

'I'm not feeling too well this morning,' Minami was honest enough to admit.

Kyoko looked at her, then, taking a deep breath, decided to take a more Keisuke-like approach to this situation:

'You're pregnant, aren't you?'

Minami dropped the cup making it spill some of the hot water on the kitchen's worktop.

'Oh, shoot,' the singer said while trying to dry things up.

'Minami…' Kyoko said as she tried to help her friend.

'He told you, didn't he?' Minami said looking at Kyoko angrily. Kyoko shook her head for, technically speaking, it was true.

'I don't need anyone to tell me. I may not be a doctor like Akiko but, the way you're showing all the signs it's clear as a billboard.'

'What do you mean?' Minami asked.

'Sweetie, maybe it's because I'm pregnant myself and maybe you develop some sort of radar that detects other pregnant women but, I just can tell you are.'

Minami then, forgetting all about the tea and the spilt water, took a couple of steps forward and sat down on the kitchen's bench.

'I'm six weeks pregnant,' Minami finally admitted and Kyoko, joining her on the bench, said:

'How did Takumi react to the news?'

Minami looked at her before replying:

'He was extremely freaked out but…'

'He was happy about it, wasn't he?'

'Yeah, as happy as Takumi can be,' Minami said.

'How do you feel about it?' Kyoko asked her taking Minami's hand between hers. Looking at her from close up, Kyoko saw the troubled look in the younger woman's eyes.

'I don't know…I'm…'

'Confused? Terrified? Trapped? Freaked out? All of the above?' Kyoko asked with a tiny smile.

'Yeah, how do you…'

'Because I felt the same at first, both times.'

'Both times? I thought this was your first time,' Minami said.

'Yes, this is the first time I'm pregnant for real but a few years ago, for a few days, I really thought I was pregnant. Keisuke and I had just broken up and I was living in this tiny apartment, working at a garage.'

'Wow, really?' Minami asked raising her eyebrows in shock.

'Yes, and even if the conditions were the worst ever, I still felt lucky that I might have been carrying Keisuke's child.'

'But you had broken up,' Minami said.

'Yes, well, it's a long story but, I still loved him and I was truly happy to be able to at least have something that would link me to him forever.'

'I see,' Minami said.

'Minami, Takumi's crazy about you. He really loves you and I know you love him as much as that or more.'

'I do,' Minami confessed.

'Then, there's no way you can not want to have his kid,' Kyoko said firmly and for a brief second, she realised that this was the way Akiko would have handled the situation. This made Kyoko feel very proud of herself.

'I do want this baby. How could I not? Giving Takumi a child is something I've wanted to do for a very long time.'

'Why did you tell Takumi you weren't sure about it?' Kyoko asked, dropping all pretences.

'So, he did tell you about it,' Minami asked, sharp as always.

'No,' she replied, 'Keisuke basically made him confess, he can be very persuasive, you know, and Keisuke just confirmed to me what I already knew. In any case, you're avoiding my question.'

'Is just that…it's wrong…'

'Wrong?' Kyoko asked frowning.

'It's something silly, really…'

'What is it?' Kyoko asked.

'I just wanted to do it the right way…you know, being married and all,' Minami finally said and Kyoko had to refrain from smacking the singer on the back of her head.

'Minami, if what you want is a wedding, you should know that Takumi's been waiting for you to be ready. Tell him you want to get married before the kid's born.'

'No, I don't want to be the one asking.'

'Alright then, I'll get Keisuke to get Takumi to ask you, how is that?'

'Weird and complicated,' Minami said.

'Welcome to the Takahashi family,' Kyoko said smiling.

'Takumi's not a Takahashi,' Minami pointed out.

'No, he's even worse: he's a Fujiwara,' Kyoko said and both women, for the first time in the whole conversation, started laughing.

_To be continued…_


	6. Chapter Five

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Five_

Remembering the way Takumi had proposed still made Minami smile as she tried on one of the wedding dresses at the shop Akiko and Kyoko had taken her to.

It had happened almost two weeks before, in the evening of the very same day Kyoko had shown up at the singer's place. Takumi had simply walked into the music room where she was about to start playing the piano and said:

'Minami, put your shoes on, we're going out.'

She obeyed and, more out of curiosity than anything else, followed him to his beloved AE86.

The two of them drove all the way from Tokyo to the top of Mt Akina in complete silence and just as Minami had finally come up with something to say, Takumi stopped the car.

Looking beyond the windscreen, Minami saw that they had parked the car at one of the topmost corners of the mountain pass, from which one could admire the mountain, its road and, beyond that, the valley with the cities that, being night time, were all lit up making it all look as a piece of dark velvet with sparkly bits thrown randomly on it.

Takumi turned round to face her and said:

'I know one is supposed to ask this over a candlelit dinner but, this is the best I can do with us being so famous and all.'

'Takumi, has Keisuke talked to you?' Minami asked and Takumi nodded, 'So, you're just going to ask me to marry you because Keisuke told you I wanted to,' Minami said miserably.

'No, I'm asking you to marry me because I want to be with you my whole life,' Takumi said rendering Minami speechless, 'look, I really don't care if we're legally married or not. As far as I'm concerned we've been living as man and wife ever since I moved into the house. Keisuke's told me that you told Kyoko that you'd be happier if we made our union legal and your happiness is all that matters to me.'

'Takumi…'

'Minami, I really want you to be happy, because if you're happy then I'll be happy too. If this means we have to get married, then so be it.'

Minami looked at him astonished to see how very serious Takumi was about this then, she said:

'Are you sure we're ready for all of this? You know, the baby and all.'

'I don't know. I won't know how I feel about the baby until I have him or her in my arms but I can tell you that the thought of having made something this special with you makes me feel great.'

'Same here,' she admitted and then the two of them looked at each other for a while until, Takumi, frowning, said:

'You still haven't said it…'

'Ah! Yes…I'm sorry…I accept,' Minami said.

'You accept?' Takumi said raising his eyebrows in surprise, 'is that how you're supposed to reply to a marriage proposal?'

'I don't know…I guess so. Er…I'll be happy to be your wife?' she said tentatively making Takumi shake his head.

'Alright then, let's head back home,' Takumi said.

'Er…Takumi, aren't you supposed to give me something?' Minami asked.

'Ah, yes, sorry,' he said and bending across the car, he took her face in one of his hands and kissed her.

'Okay, that was good but, isn't there something else?' Minami asked showing him her left hand. Finally something seemed to click on Takumi's brain and, biting his lower lip, he said:

'I'm sorry, I didn't have time to…'

'It's alright, I don't really need a ring anyway,' Minami said laughing softly and it was true, she was so happy that she really didn't care about something as trivial as that.

'No, no, I'll get you one,' Takumi insisted.

A few minutes later, they headed back home and, for the first time in too many days, the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms.

'Are you sure you won't need more time to organise the whole thing a bit more carefully?' Kyoko asked making Minami come back to reality.

'No, it's alright, I want to get married before I start showing…' Minami admitted blushing delicately.

'It makes sense,' Akiko, always the pragmatic one, said.

'Besides, getting married right after the next race means we will have a few days off to go on our honeymoon,' Minami explained.

'Yes, that's also true,' Kyoko said.

'I wonder what's going to be,' Minami said looking down at her still flat tummy.

'Me too,' Kyoko said nodding and looking at her own, no longer quite so flat one.

Akiko laughed at her two friends.

'I still don't know how you coped while you were expecting Kyosuke without knowing the baby's gender,' Kyoko said looking at Akiko.

'You didn't want to know?' Minami asked Akiko who shook her head.

'No.'

'Why not?' Minami asked.

'Ah, that's a long story,' Akiko said clearly not wanting to go too much into details.

'Does it hurt as much as they say?' Minami asked taking the hint.

'I wouldn't know: both of my sons were born via c-section. But you shouldn't worry too much, medicine has evolved quite significantly in the pain management field and, nowadays, there are many different ways to prevent both the baby and the mother from having to suffer more than it's strictly necessary.'

'Ah, I see...'

'It's not my area of expertise but, if you have any questions about the pregnancy or childbirth, feel free to ask and I'll answer them as well as I can,' Akiko said.

'Isn't it great to have a doctor in the family?' Kyoko said smiling happily as Minami's head started making a long mental list of questions she wanted to ask Akiko.

Meanwhile, Takumi had gone to Shibukawa so he could meet up with his best friend. Itsuki was already waiting for him outside the Family restaurant where, a few years back, he and the gang used to spend so many of their evenings.

'So, what is it you wanted to tell me?' Itsuki asked after they had sat down at a table and had two coffees in front of them.

'Er…I just needed to tell you that I'm getting married in two weeks time,' Takumi said and Itsuki, nearly chocking himself with his coffee, wondered how Takumi managed to say something like that with such an expressionless face.

'What?' he asked the minute he regained the ability to speak.

'Yeah, and that's not all,' Takumi said and then proceeded to explain his best friend about the reason behind these extremely rushed nuptials.

'Wow Takumi, I thought you were fast only with cars,' Itsuki commented still looking very much stunned after having found out about Minami's pregnancy.

'Yeah, well, the thing is, I wanted to know if you'd mind…' Takumi stared.

'No, of course not, I'll be happy to be your best man,' Itsuki said interrupting Takumi at mid-sentence.

'Itsuki, I'm…'

'What? You weren't going to ask me that?' Itsuki said frowning in confusion.

'Not really,' Takumi replied and Itsuki's face could not have shown any more disappointment.

'Then what is it?' he asked sounding positively upset.

'The thing is, Minami and I got together mainly because of Keisuke and, I wanted to know if you'd mind awfully if I asked him to be my best man instead of you,' Takumi said and his friend's sour expression was enough of an answer for him.

Itsuki looked at his friend for a long while before saying:

'Look, I'm not going to lie to you. I thought that I'd be your best man the day you'd get married since I am your best friend, however, it does make sense you'd want to repay Keisuke by asking him instead.'

'Are you sure?' Takumi asked and Itsuki nodded.

'Yeah, I'll let Keisuke do the honours but, I get to be your kid's godfather, understood?' he said pointing at Takumi with his teaspoon.

'Deal,' Takumi said nodding and Itsuki's lips curved into a smile, making his friend's return to his usual, happy, carefree self.

After that, Takumi and Itsuki finished their coffees and headed out to the car park when two schoolgirls approached them and, one of them said:

'Hey, you're Mina-chan's boyfriend, aren't you?'

Takumi was about to say something when Itsuki, getting himself in between the girls and Takumi, said:

'Wow, what are two beautiful girls like you doing in an ugly place like this?'

Takumi shook his head but, taking the chance Itsuki was giving him, ran to his 86 and, after getting into it, he saw Itsuki throwing two kisses at each of the angry looking girls as he, too, climbed into his beloved Levin.

The two men greeted each other from the inside of their cars and then, they parted ways, one to go back to his workplace, the other to head back home in Tokyo.

The following weekend, the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team was at Motegi's circuit for the second round of the Super GT championship and, as Fumihiro opened their garage to start preparing the car for the first of the free practice sessions.

'What the…' Matsumoto said walking towards the rack where they kept all their tyres.

'Holy shit,' Keisuke said looking at one of the tyres: it had a very ugly looking gash across its entire width.

'Yeah, they're all the same!' Fumihiro said disconsolately.

'Who could so something like that?' Takumi said, his eyes wide with horror.

'We'll soon find out,' Ryosuke said with an eerily calm voice. Keisuke turned round to see his brother getting on top of a nearby chair.

'What's that?' Fumihiro asked as he saw his Team Manager unhook a small box that had been hanging, unnoticed, at one of the garage's corners.

'It's a camera. I put it here when we arrived yesterday and it's been recording everything that's been going on during the whole night,' Ryosuke said as he connected the device to his laptop so he could see the footage.

Fumihiro shook his head and, once more, was impressed by his old friend's seemingly unlimited resourcefulness.

Before Ryosuke had the time to turn his computer on, one of the mechanics did something really weird: he threw himself on the floor in a very deep, clearly apologising bow while keeping his head down.

'Tsuyoshi! What are you…' Kenta, being the one closer to him said.

'Ryosuke-san, I'm sorry…I…'

The whole team looked at him in complete disbelief.

'Tsuyoshi, get up,' Ryosuke ordered walking up to his junior mechanic. Very reluctantly, the young man obeyed and stood up refusing to look at anything else but the floor between his feet.

'Ryosuke-san…'

'Did you have anything to do with this?' Ryosuke asked even though he already knew the answer.

'You fucking…' Keisuke said taking a couple of steps towards the mechanic with every intention to beat the crap out of him.

Ryosuke put a hand on his younger brother's shoulder making him turn round to look at him.

'Aniki!'

Ryosuke shook his head and Keisuke gave up.

'Tsuyoshi, why did you do it?' Ryosuke asked still keeping an admirably calm tone of voice. Both Keisuke and Takumi, and the rest of the team for that matter, couldn't help but to be in awe of their Team Manager's ability to keep his emotions under control at almost all times.

Tsuyoshi looked at him briefly and Ryosuke saw that the young man looked absolutely terrified.

'I just…'

'Tsuyoshi, don't be afraid. I'd like you to speak your mind freely,' Ryosuke said putting his hand on the mechanic's shoulder and he was relieved to notice that Tsuyoshi stopped trembling.

'Ryosuke-san, I didn't want you to quit racing,' he finally said shocking everyone in the garage. Even Ryosuke didn't understand this and his inquisitive look encouraged Tsuyoshi to elaborate this statement:

'I thought that if we didn't win the championship you'd carry on with the team…'

'What made you think that?' Ryosuke said finally understanding what the younger man was trying to say.

'Well, I thought that if you didn't get everything you wanted, you wouldn't dissolve the team and we could still work altogether,' Tsuyoshi explained.

'Tsuyoshi, and this is also for everyone else: those of you who know me best probably know this already. I was never really interested in professional racing. Not as a driver, not as a Team Manager. The only reason why I founded this team was to give my brother and Takumi the chance to start up their own professional careers,' Ryosuke said and both Keisuke and Takumi felt something strange in their stomachs.

'I know only too well how difficult it is for anyone to make it into the professional racing world and I thought that if I could ease things for Keisuke and Takumi then I had to give it a try. After winning the GT300, and if we win the GT500, they will have good enough credentials for any team to respect them and to treat them seriously. If we win the GT500 this year, none of you will need me in order to make it big in their careers. Even you Tsuyoshi, will be able to go ahead and work for any racing team, even an F1 team if you work hard enough…'

'Ryosuke-san, what about you?' Tsuyoshi asked.

'I'm going to go and work full time for the Takahashi Arakawa Medical Group. I'm actually looking forward to start working with my wife so I get to spend more time with her,' Ryosuke said smiling.

'Ryosuke, what about the tyres?' Fumihiro asked and Ryosuke, still smiling, said:

'Fujiwara-san, could you please go and get the spare van for us?'

'Sure,' Bunta said and turned round to get out of the garage.

'How many spares did you bring?' Matsumoto, still moved by their Team Manager's speech, asked.

'Only nine sets. This means we only have three sets per day so, guys, you'll need to treat your tyres very, very carefully, understood?' Ryosuke said, talking to his drivers.

'Yes sir,' Keisuke said saluting his brother in a military way making Ryosuke shake his head.

'Ryosuke-san, what about me? I've…' Tsuyoshi said.

'Just work twice as hard as you usually do, then I'll forget everything that's happened,' Ryosuke said.

'You've got my word,' Tsuyoshi said.

_To be continued…_


	7. Chapter Six

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Six_

It has raining pretty heavily at Motegi's circuit that Sunday afternoon. As Takumi waited for the semaphore's light to turn green, he realised that this was his last race before being a married man. This thought startled him for he still couldn't think of himself as a husband, father and head of his own family, in fact, when he thought of any such man, Ryosuke's image appeared in his head. He doubted he would be able to be half as good as his Team Manager was at heading his family.

You don't need to be like him, you're just you, a tiny voice, one that sounded very much like his own father's, said coming from somewhere at the back of his mind. Takumi shook his head and returned his attention to what was happening around him.

At long last, the race started and with the car being in an uncomfortable fourth position, Takumi had to be careful not to be overtaken by any of the cars surrounding him or, even worse, get hit and put out of action even before the first corner.

After the whole incident with the tyres, they had had a lot of trouble trying to do as well as the other teams without being able to test the different set of tyres but, thanks to the instructions Ryosuke had given both him and Keisuke, the two drivers had managed to get the best out of the car without wearing too much the tyres they had.

Seeing the poor weather conditions they had woken up to had only worsened matters for, Takumi knew, they only had two sets of full wet tyres. This meant that they could only do one change and, if they punctured one of the tyres too soon, the race would be over.

With this thought, Takumi made sure he didn't skid more than absolutely necessary as he negotiated the first corner and then the second.

'How is it feeling?' he heard Fumihiro ask through the radio.

'It's alright, the suspension's a bit bouncier than usual,' Takumi commented.

'That's alright, we've set it like that on purpose,' Ryosuke said, 'just tell us if the car is too difficult to control.'

'I'll do,' Takumi said and then, as usual, the radio went silent again. Unlike Keisuke, Takumi didn't like it too much when the team talked to him through the radio. He preferred to be left alone when he drove, this way he could concentrate much better.

He also knew the Motegi track quite well by now and whereas he usually liked it because it had plenty of sharp corners, this time, and having to keep an extra eye on the tyres, Takumi found himself having to drive by grip rather than letting the car slide as he usually preferred.

Thankfully he'd had loads of training driving by grip and he was getting almost as good in that style as he was drifting.

Seeing the strips of grass that were placed at both sides of the track gave Takumi an idea: Motegi's asphalt was known for being super-abrasive and, while normally, in dry conditions, this would be a suicidal thing to do, the tyres would get very dusty and therefore, would lose grip, now it was raining and the grass was probably even more slippery than the track itself.

Takumi smiled as he proceeded to test his theory.

'What in the hell is he doing?' Fumihiro asked alarmed seeing what his driver was doing.

'His job,' Ryosuke simply said.

'He's driving with half the car outside the track!' Fumihiro exclaimed unable to understand anything.

'Fumihiro, think about this: by driving with either side alternatively on the grass instead of on the track, Takumi is probably making the tyres last longer…' Ryosuke explained.

'But the grass is so much more slippery than the track,' Fumihiro commented.

'Yeah, and Takumi's probably using that fact in his favour,' Bunta said.

'Can that be done?' Fumihiro asked frowning.

'Theoretically speaking, what Takumi's doing is downright dangerous for he could spin out of the track any minute,' Ryosuke explained.

'But then…'

'Fumihiro, I said theoretically speaking. Theory rarely applies to Takumi,' Ryosuke said smiling and Bunta chuckled as Fumihiro shook his head.

'What a crazy son of a…'

'Oi,' Bunta said elbowing Fumihiro on his ribcage.

'Oops, sorry,' Fumihiro said and both Ryosuke and Bunta started laughing.

By the time Takumi started his last lap before heading back into the pit lane, he was in first position leading the race by a full fifteen seconds.

'Takumi, take it easy, the car in second position has just entered the boxes,' Ryosuke informed his driver.

'Alright,' Takumi said and, as he turned one of the sharpest corners of the circuit he saw something that made his blood freeze in his veins.

'Caref…' Fumihiro started but Takumi didn't have the time to listen to his warning. With a very sharp turn of the steering wheel, he put his car across the track, with it's right side facing the three crashed cars and, drifting all the way through the outside part of the corner, thankfully it was covered by grass and not gravel, he managed to avoid them while being lucky enough to get the car back onto the track.

'Fuck,' he whispered. That had been way too close.

'Good reflexes,' Ryosuke said and, maybe Takumi was getting paranoid but his Team Manager's voice didn't sound as firm as it usually was.

'Thanks,' he replied while trying to get his concentration back on the race.

Takumi entered the pit lane together with the other cars for the Race Director had decided to send the safety car out so they could clear the track of the three crashed cars.

'Geez Takumi, you almost didn't make it to your own wedding,' Keisuke, being extraordinarily insensitive said while he exchanged places with Takumi.

'Yeah, thanks…' Takumi said looking rather sour.

Fifteen minutes later, the safety car got back inside and they re-started the race with Keisuke behind the wheel. Needless to say, and even though they were still leading the race, the stop had made them lose all the time gap Takumi had built for them and, for Keisuke, it would be an uphill battle to end the race without losing position.

Naturally, for the uphill ace that he was, this meant that by the end of the race, the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had managed to get their first victory of the season.

'Everyone, thanks for your hard work,' Ryosuke said while looking at Tsuyoshi who immediately turned as red as a pepperoni.

'Ryosuke-san…'

'You kept your promise, I'll keep mine: let's forget about it, alright?'

Tsuyoshi nodded and then proceeded, with a bit more vigour than usual, to finish packing up so the team could leave the circuit.

It was good that they had won for, this way, and as everyone made their way to Tokyo, they would have an extra thing to celebrate.

'It's great Minami's let you use the house for the stag party,' Itsuki said as the whole team, plus Itsuki, Iketani and Kenji, entered Takumi and Minami's house to celebrate the young man's last weekend as a single man.

'Yeah well, she's with the girls at Akiko and Aniki's place so, it's only fair,' Keisuke commented as he helped bring in a keg of beer.

'Guys, let's take it easy though, alright?' Takumi said.

'Sure, don't worry,' Kenji said and, the way Kenji was looking at him made Takumi get instantly worried.

'I'm serious,' Takumi said.

'Argh, have fun, will you? Once you'll be married and when the baby will be born,' Matsumoto commented.

'That's not entirely true, I still have loads of fun,' Ryosuke said and everyone in the room looked at their Team Manager very obviously doubting Ryosuke actually knew what having fun meant.

'Anyway, it's a girls-free night, so let's enjoy ourselves,' Iketani said breaking the awkward silence that formed after Ryosuke's statement.

'Holy words my friend, holy words,' Keisuke said passing an arm around Iketani's shoulders as the two men started tasting the beer from the freshly opened keg.

'It's a nice beer,' Kenta said.

'Well, it's Kirin's wedding present to Takumi,' Fumihiro commented as he too drank his own glass of beer.

'Come on son, get a bit merrier, will you?' Bunta said encouraging his always too serious son.

By the fourth keg, everyone was more than just merry and, with the music as loud as they had it, it was nothing short of a miracle that they managed to hear the door's bell.

'I'll get it,' Itsuki said and being unusually helpful he walked up to the door, coming back a few instants later with a very serious face, he then said, 'Takumi, there are two police officers who want to speak to the owner of the house.'

Takumi's eyes widened in shock and, getting up from the sofa, he saw two police officers entering the living room. Had he not been a bit more than tipsy, he would have noticed two very important details:

One, Kenji and Iketani were snickering even more than earlier on. Two, the police officers were a bit too good looking to be for real. However, Takumi realised only too soon that he had been set up by his so-called best friends as the two 'officers' grabbed him, put him against one of the living room walls and started fondling him.

'What are you…' Takumi asked feeling his cheeks on fire.

'Sir, I believe you've got quite a big weapon in here, are you licensed to use it?' one of the 'officers' said putting her hand on Takumi's crotch.

He then turned round to see that the two 'officers' removed their caps revealing two long shiny manes. Then, with Itsuki as their accomplice, a very sexy tune started playing from the Hi-Fi and the two girls started taking their clothes off in front of a very embarrassed looking Takumi.

'Itsuki, Takumi's so going to kill you,' Keisuke said laughing while enjoying the show as much as everyone else in the room.

'I can't believe Ryosuke's sleeping through this,' Fumihiro said pointing at their Team Manager who had fallen asleep on one of the couches half way through the party.

'This is probably his idea of 'having fun',' Matsumoto slurred for he was beyond pissed.

Meanwhile, at the Takahashi's, Akiko, Kyoko, Minami and the singer's best friend Mariko, welcomed Mako and Sayuki into the house.

'Where should I put this?' Minami's mother asked bringing one of the platters full of canapés into the living room.

'Just leave it here Yoshimura-san,' Akiko said then, she added, 'you really shouldn't be doing this.'

'Oh, I'm happy to help and I'm honoured to have been invited into your house Takahashi-san,' Minami's mother said.

'Please call me Akiko. There are two Takahashi-san in here and it could get confusing,' Akiko said smiling sweetly.

'Mum, can I have one?' Kyosuke said pointing at one of the canapés.

'Yes, but not the ones with the caviar, you're too young for that,' Akiko said.

'The what?' Kyosuke said frowning at his mother.

'The ones with that black stuff on it,' Kyoko explained to her nephew.

'Ah, that, I don't like it anyway,' Kyosuke said, 'Uncle Keisuke gave me once a some of that stuff: it tastes funny,' the boy explained seeing his mother's confused expression.

'Did he now?' Akiko said making a mental note to tell her brother-in-law off for messing up with her son's diet.

'Mummy, I want that,' Seisuke said from his high chair pointing at the bottle of champagne that was still unopened. This made everyone laugh.

'Baby, you're definitely too young for that,' Kyoko said laughing softly.

'Isn't any of us curious as to what the boys are doing?' Sayuki asked suddenly.

'No,' Akiko said for it was true.

'I am,' Mariko said.

'Why don't we go and check it out?' Sayuki suggested.

'Girls, I don't think that's such a good idea,' Akiko said warningly.

'Why not?' Kyoko asked.

'Well, we let them do the party and by doing that we're saying that we trust them,' Akiko explained.

'So?' Mariko said.

'I, for one, trust my husband enough to know that he's not going to be doing anything strange,' Akiko said firmly.

'She's right, you know,' Minami's mother said.

'I don't know,' Sayuki said for, obviously, her trust in her boyfriend Kenji wasn't quite as strong as Akiko's for her husband.

'If Itsuki is involved, I'm sure there'll be trouble,' Mariko commented.

'Oh, you're just biased,' Minami said knowing that her best friend was still a bit resentful with Takumi's friend for having dumped her.

'Why don't we just go and take a quick look?' Sayuki insisted.

'I'm not sure,' Mako said, finally intervening in the conversation.

'Oh, hell, I'm going,' Mariko said getting up from the sofa.

'Me too,' Sayuki said.

'Hey, how are you going to get there?' Mako asked her best friend.

'Er…right, give me the keys,' she said.

'Ah no, you aren't driving my car,' Mako said shaking her head.

'Come with me then, I've got my own car,' Mariko said to Sayuki.

'Girls…' Akiko said shaking her head her face showing how much she disapproved of this.

'Akiko, I'm a bit curious too,' Kyoko said with a tiny voice.

'Alright, you go, but I'm staying here,' Akiko said resolutely. Minami's mother also sat down next to her expressing her will to stay in the house too.

'Fine, Minami?' Kyoko said and the singer looked at her briefly before nodding.

'I'm coming too.'

Mako, Sayuki, Minami and Mariko all boarded the Takahashi's MPV with Kyoko behind the wheel as she drove them all the way to the singer's house in Tokyo.

What they found when Minami opened her house's door and as the other four girls followed her to the living room made all of them wish they had listened to Akiko:

The room was a complete mess and as a dozen, very obviously drunk men, danced with two half naked women. All of this while, oblivious to what was happening around him, Ryosuke continued to sleep on one of the couches.

_To be continued…_


	8. Chapter Seven

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Seven_

When she found out about the whole thing Akiko felt almost sorry that she hadn't been there to witness first hand what had happened.

From one side, the boys were absolutely horrified seeing the five women standing near the living room's door. Takumi, in particular seemed to be completely petrified as he waited for Minami to explode and even Keisuke, usually the bravest of all of them, was bracing himself in preparation for his wife's equally violent reaction.

'Er…we'll just go then,' one of the strippers said breaking the silence.

Itsuki accompanied both women happy to have an excuse to get out of the room. He was definitely lucky for not being married or attached in any way to any of the five furious looking women.

'Er…we gan eshphlain epheryshing…' Iketani slurred while hoping his wife wouldn't make the gigantic scene he knew he deserved.

Instead, and against all odds, Mako started laughing.

'What the…' Sayuki said looking at her best friend as if the poor woman had lost her marbles. Then, strangely enough, Minami started laughing too.

'Oh my gosh,' the singer said with tears of laughter in her beautiful eyes.

Takumi simply did not understand anything anymore.

'This is just so lame,' Kyoko said starting to laugh too.

'Yeah, could you be anymore predictable?' Mariko said disdainfully.

The men were, at that point, at a loss as to what to say.

'Kyoko…' Keisuke said trying to sound a lot more sober than what he was failing miserably.

'Don't worry, we'll just head back home now, you...just sleep it off, alright?' Kyoko said still smiling in a very patronising manner.

'Yeah, and clean up tomorrow morning. I don't want Mum to see the living room in such a state,' Minami said to Takumi who just nodded.

'That's it?' Sayuki said, clearly not happy with the way her friends had handled the situation.

'Yes, that's it Sayuki. Tomorrow morning they're going to be so hangover that that'll be punishment enough for me,' Mako said and Iketani didn't know whether to be happy about his wife's statement or not.

With this, Kyoko turned round to head back outside the house with the other four girls following her.

'What's going on?' Ryosuke said as he finally woke up.

Everyone looked at him and, for the first time ever, they all ignored their Team Manager.

When the girls got back home and explained the whole thing to Akiko, she couldn't repress an 'I've told you so' look.

'Yeah, you're lucky, Ryosuke was sleeping like a baby on the couch,' Kyoko said remembering the whole episode as they walked back to their table in the beautiful marquee where the reception for Takumi and Minami's wedding was being held. It was impressive they had managed to organise everything so well in less than two weeks.

'Yes, I'm lucky I have such a sensible husband,' Akiko said looking up at a very smug looking Ryosuke.

'Aniki, sometimes I…' Keisuke said interrupting himself at mid-sentence not finding the right words to describe how he felt when it came to his brother's seeming inability to do anything wrong.

Meanwhile, Kenji was sitting on a chair on his own looking pretty miserable.

'She's still angry at you?' Takumi asked him sitting next to his old friend.

'Yep. She's only conceded me a ceasefire for your wedding,' Kenji said frowning.

'Oh, come on, even Minami's forgiven me,' Takumi said and he was forever grateful for if she hadn't, he wouldn't have seen how extraordinarily beautiful she looked in her wedding dress. He looked across the room where she was talking to Mariko just so he could observe her for a bit.

'Yeah, but Sayuki's got such a bad temper,' Kenji said.

'She'll forgive you,' Iketani said having approached the two friends and Takumi nodded briefly before saying:

'If you'll excuse me, I'll go and dance with my wife.'

He got up and left.

'That sounds just creepy,' Kenji commented.

'What does?' Iketani said.

'Takumi referring to someone as his wife,' Kenji explained.

'Yeah, that's true, who would have thought that air-head Takumi would end up being married before you,' Iketani said making Kenji's expression go back to being completely miserable, 'Sorry, I didn't…'

'No, you're right, unless I somehow manage to convince Sayuki to forgive me, I don't think we'll ever get married.'

'I didn't know you wanted to get married,' Iketani said raising his eyebrows in astonishment.

'I do. I even proposed to her but Sayuki said she's not ready for that kind of commitment yet.'

'Wow, man…that's bad,.' Iketani said.

'Yeah, of all women in the universe I get the only one who's not dying to say 'I do',' Kenji complained.

'Oh well, the only thing I can say is that you shouldn't give up,' Iketani said patting his best friend's shoulder.

'Yeah, I'm a Speed Stars. We never give up, do we?' Kenji said looking a bit more cheerful.

'Never,' Iketani agreed, 'now, what do you say if we ask our ladies to dance with us?'

Kenji nodded and they both walked to where the Sileighty Duo was standing.

Nearby, Itsuki was also sitting by himself drinking from his glass of champagne when Mariko approached him.

'Do you want to dance? For old times' sake?'

Itsuki looked at her and said:

'Alright.'

He got up and followed the model to the dance floor.

'I think you've got taller,' he said complaining that he had to look up just to see her face.

'Don't be silly, I'm twenty four, I can't grow up anymore now,' the girl said.

'Then it's the heels,' he said pointing at the stilettos she was wearing.

'Yeah, that may be it,' she agreed.

'How have you been?' Itsuki asked conversationally.

'Lonely,' she replied a bit too honestly making Itsuki miss a step then, before he could say anything, she said, 'I haven't told anyone yet but, I'm leaving soon…'

'Leaving? Where to?' Itsuki said.

'The U.S.' she replied.

'What? Why?' Itsuki asked with his voice a bit higher pitched than usual.

'I got a very good offer from a make up company called Maybelline and they want me to move to New York,' Mariko said.

'Wow,' Itsuki said.

'I could stay though, if I had a good enough reason,' Mariko said with a tiny voice.

Itsuki looked at her and said:

'Mariko, you know that…'

'I know, it wouldn't work, you said the same when you broke up with me,' she said sadly.

'It wasn't your fault. Mariko, you really need someone much better than me,' Itsuki said speaking with all the frankness he could muster.

'That's not true,' Mariko said, 'I've always hated the way you always beat yourself down.'

'Well, it's not so difficult you know, I'm short, ugly, I haven't got any special talents.'

Mariko bent down and, with a kiss interrupted Itsuki's speech.

'You're a really good guy and that's very rare, remember that,' she said before leaving him standing in the middle of the dance floor feeling like a fool.

Two weeks later, and after having enjoyed a week at the Kanbayashi Onsen, Takumi could be found back behind the SE's wheel as he and his team prepared the car for the third round of the GT500 championship.

He had actually been happy that they had gone somewhere so close home. Since Minami was now almost three months pregnant, it wasn't a good idea for her to travel by plane and, knowing that in Kanbayashi they had their privacy guaranteed, it had been the obvious choice for the couple's honeymoon.

It had been simply fantastic to be able to spend a whole week by themselves and undisturbed. They had enjoyed the park's gorgeous scenery and had plenty of time to talk, mainly about the baby. Takumi was very grateful that their problems had been so brilliantly solved for he could now go back to enjoy Minami's company as she cheered him up in a way no one else could.

Takumi thought of how very lucky he'd been finding Minami as he was driving along their test track. Suddenly, he felt a strange vibration coming from the engine and, not wanting to risk it, he decided to get back to the box so the mechanics could check it out.

'Where's Keisuke?' he asked Matsumoto as Takumi got out of the car.

'He's gone to the hospital, Kyoko had her scan today,' the Chief Engineer explained.

'Ah, I remember, today she was going to know the baby's gender,' Takumi said recalling what Minami had told him the previous day.

'Yeah, I think so.'

'Oh well, the engine's doing something strange, it'd be a good idea to take a look at it,' Takumi said getting back to business.

While this was happening, Keisuke was indeed at the hospital waiting with his wife for their turn to do the scan.

'Takahashi-san?' a nurse said reading from a list.

'Yeah, that's us,' Keisuke said springing up from the chair startling Kyoko in the process.

'Geez, you're eager,' Kyoko complained getting up too.

Soon Kyoko was laying down on a stretcher with her increasingly swelling belly uncovered as Doctor Yamaguchi proceeded to warm up the gel that they would use for the scan.

'Kyoko, I take Akiko's told you that it may be a bit too soon for us to know the gender for sure,' the doctor who had taken care of the birth of both Akiko and Ryosuke's sons said.

'Yes, I know,' Kyoko replied for she knew that, albeit she was on her twentieth week, the result of this scan might not have been definite.

'Alright then, are you two prepared to see your baby?' she asked smiling sweetly at both future parents.

'Absolutely,' Keisuke said more than ready to see his child for he had been utterly disappointed during the last scan when all he had seen was an indefinite blotch on the ultrasound's monitor.

The doctor, very delicately, pressed the ultrasound's sensor over Kyoko's tummy and, after a while, she said:

'There, that's your baby,' she said pointing at the screen with her free hand.

Kyoko felt a wave of emotion go through her as she stared at the more than definite shape of the small human being that was growing inside her. She felt a knot tying her throat and she started feeling the tears coming up to her eyes.

Keisuke just stared at it enraptured by the image.

'Aha,' the doctor exclaimed happily, 'Kyoko, I take it back, it's very clear that you're expecting a beautiful baby girl…'

Kyoko looked from the doctor back to the screen and then at her husband. Seeing Keisuke's disappointed face killed her smile instantly.

'Keisuke?' Doctor Yamaguchi said frowning for she too, had seen the young man's expression.

'Are you sure?' Keisuke asked staring at the monitor. Kyoko now felt two tears cross her cheeks that had nothing to do with the joy she had felt earlier.

Doctor Yamaguchi nodded while looking at Keisuke gravely.

'Ah, alright,' he said clearly not impressed by the news.

'I'll go and get you the tape,' Doctor Yamaguchi said looking at Keisuke with contempt then, smiling at Kyoko as sweetly as she could, she said, 'honey, you can wash up and get dressed. I'll be waiting for you at my office, alright?'

'Sure,' Kyoko said and, refusing to look at Keisuke, she climbed down from the stretcher and went to the dressing room so she could get changed.

'So, it's a girl,' Keisuke said as, after the doctor's visit, both went down in the elevator that was taking them back to the Arakawa Hospital's car park.

'Yes,' Kyoko said a bit more aggressively than usual.

Keisuke didn't say anything and, as they reached the bottom floor and stepping out of the elevator, Kyoko exclaimed:

'Alright, let's hear it!'

'Hear what?' Keisuke asked confusedly.

'That you're disappointed! That you wanted a boy!' Kyoko shouted, no longer bothering with keeping her voice down.

'Kyoko, I…'

'Don't even try to deny it. I know that you didn't want a girl! You've said it a million times that you wanted a boy!'

'Well, that's true but…'

'I'm sorry that we're messing up with your plans then!' she shouted and, as she turned round to walk back to their car, she felt something weird in the lower part of her belly.

'Kyoko?' Keisuke asked and, as she put a hand onto a nearby column while holding her still small belly with the other, Keisuke's concern became sheer terror, 'KYOKO!'

He then caught her in his arms and, running as fast as he could, he headed back to the elevator, getting back into it and pressing the button that would take them to the hospital's emergency ward.

_To be continued…_


	9. Chapter Eight

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Eight_

While he waited for one of the doctors from the emergency services to come out of the examination rooms, Keisuke saw Akiko running towards him.

'I've just heard…' she said trying to catch up her breath.

'Akiko, I don't know what happened…one minute she was fine then…' Keisuke started explaining running his fingers nervously though his spiky hair as he paced up and down the waiting area.

Akiko was going to say something when Doctor Yamaguchi joined them.

'What did you do?' the usually calm doctor said pointing a finger at Keisuke angrily.

'Megumi?' Akiko said looking at her colleague with a confused expression.

'Akiko, unfortunately, I can't tell you anything,' Doctor Yamaguchi said even though she looked as though as she was dying to do so. Akiko then, understanding that her colleague was bound by the confidentiality agreement, turned her gaze towards Keisuke and said:

'Alright, can you tell me what's going on?'

'The baby's a girl,' Keisuke finally said while collapsing on one of the chairs, 'and I didn't take it too well.'

'Yes, he was a lot less than enthusiastic about the idea,' Doctor Yamaguchi spurted and Akiko was shocked to hear how angry she sounded. If there was an award for the most patient, kindest doctor in the hospital, Akiko would have given it to Megumi Yamaguchi, 'and you gave her a hard time because of it, didn't you? After you left my office.' Doctor Yamaguchi continued.

Hearing these words, and seeing that Keisuke wasn't denying any of the accusations, triggered something within Akiko's mind and, without any previous warning, she walked towards Keisuke grabbing him by the front of his t-shirt making him stand up.

'What did you tell her?' Akiko said trembling with fury.

'I…just…' Keisuke started looking positively terrified seeing the rage burning in his sister-in-law's eyes.

'YOU WHAT?' she shouted, too angry to bother about the hospital's regulations.

'I…' Keisuke tried again while looking at Doctor Yamaguchi who, she too, was starting to get scared of Akiko's reaction.

Then Akiko did it, with all the strength she could muster in her small body, she raised her hand and slapped Keisuke extremely hard on his left cheek.

'You, of all people, should know better than that! Don't you remember what my father did to my mother? Didn't you see what he did to me? I didn't think you could be such an insensitive pig Keisuke!' Akiko said so angry she was wheezing instead of talking.

'Akiko…' Doctor Yamaguchi said putting her hand on her very angry colleague's shoulder. Turning round, she saw that standing nearby there was one of the other doctors who looked positively freaked out.

'Doctor Takahashi, er…'

'Doctor Matsuyama, I'm sorry…' Akiko said fighting to regain her composure.

'Takahashi-san,' Doctor Matsuyama said talking to Keisuke, 'your wife is fine: she had just a minor contraction, probably caused by stress. We're going to keep her in observation for twenty four hours, just to be sure everything is going as it should, however, I recommend she gets plenty of rest after that…'

Keisuke just nodded to that.

'Thank you Doctor Matsuyama,' Akiko said and then, taking the chance that the emergency services doctor was leaving them alone again, Doctor Yamaguchi left with him too, Akiko made a mental note to go and speak to her colleague later on. She then turned to face Keisuke and said:

'Now, you go in there and make sure you apologise in every way you know for, unless she forgives you in the most absolute way, you are not going to set foot in our house ever again, understood?'

Keisuke nodded once more too afraid to do anything that may set her off again. Apparently satisfied by this, Akiko turned round and left him in the waiting room.

He then let out the breath he'd been holding and walked into the room Doctor Matsuyama had indicated earlier on.

Kyoko turned her head towards the door as he stepped into the room an ugly frown appearing on her beautiful face as she saw her husband. Before Keisuke had the time to say anything, Kyoko said:

'What happened to your face?'

Keisuke put his hand on his cheek and frowning, he said:

'You really don't want to piss Akiko off…'

'She did that?' Kyoko asked in disbelief.

'You know, it really is a good thing Akiko rarely gets angry because when she does, I swear, she would scare the pants off a yakuza gangster.'

Kyoko bit her lip at the same time a small smile appeared on her face, replacing the frown.

'What did you do to her?' she asked.

'Well, she found out I wasn't entirely thrilled about the baby's gender and she went completely ballistic.'

'Well, she wouldn't, wouldn't she? After what she went through herself,' Kyoko said the smile disappearing as quickly as it had formed.

'I know. Look, Kyoko, I can't lie to you: I would have preferred a boy because I've always had this dream of having a son I could teach to drive, a bit like Bunta did with Takumi.'

'Hey, you can teach her to drive too, you know? I may not look like it right now but I am a street racer who, by the way, almost beat you in our one and only battle.'

'That's true,' Keisuke said.

'And let's not forget Mako-san, who happens to be faster than most guys, including her own husband.'

'Too true,' Keisuke agreed.

'Then, what's the problem if the baby is a girl?'

'Well, it's that if she's half as beautiful as you are, and I'm sure she will be, I won't have a moment of peace ever again,' Keisuke said with such a childish face that made Kyoko smile again.

'Keisuke, you don't need to be afraid of that, if she finds a guy half as good as her father is, I'll be happy,' Kyoko said making Keisuke pout even more.

'If a guy like me goes anywhere near her, I'll kill him,' Keisuke said making Kyoko laugh, then seeing that, he said, 'Kyoko, can you please forgive me?'

Kyoko looked at him and, after a while, she said:

'Yeah, I can. I'm getting pretty good at forgiving you anyway.'

Keisuke smiled and said:

'Can you please tell Akiko you've forgiven me? Otherwise I'm not going to be allowed back into the house.'

'Don't worry, I'll talk to her,' Kyoko said smiling and, although she felt grateful she had such a good friend in Akiko who always seemed to defend her, she made a mental note to ask Akiko not to terrify Keisuke like that again.

Three days later, the Takahashi welcomed Takumi and Minami to their home for a family barbeque to celebrate that Kyoko was having a girl.

'It will be a nice change, having a baby girl in the family,' Akiko commented and both Minami and Kyoko agreed with her.

'Yes, well, it's not my fault you've had two boys,' Keisuke said for his ego hadn't quite recovered from the slap she'd given him.

'No, that's your brother's,' she said with nonchalance.

'She's right,' Ryosuke said smiling in a way that made Keisuke turn round and mumble:

'I'll go and get the meat.'

They all laughed at that and then Minami, talking to Kyoko, said:

'Can you imagine if mine's a girl too?'

'Yeah, they could become best friends and form a street racing duo like Mako and Sayuki!' Kyoko said happily.

'Er…' Takumi started and both Minami and Kyoko glared at him daring him to say anything against that idea.

'Takumi, let's go and help Keisuke with the meat,' Ryosuke suggested.

'Yeah, let's do that,' he agreed following his boss into the kitchen.

'Pregnant women are scary,' Takumi commented once the three men were in the kitchen, more to seek refuge than to actually help with the barbeque. Keisuke nodded to that while Ryosuke just laughed.

'You laugh but your wife is the scariest of the three,' Keisuke said to him.

'I know, but being the smart guy I am, I always do what she says, or at least pretend I do, so I keep her happy,' Ryosuke said taking a platter and leaving the kitchen.

'You can't beat that reasoning,' Takumi said copying his Team Manager.

'I'm surrounded by smartasses,' Keisuke said to himself as he too, took a platter of raw meat and went to the house's garden.

'I'm so sad guys,' Minami said as they were all finally sitting down at the garden's table enjoying their meal.

'Why is that?' Takumi asked worriedly.

'Mariko's leaving today, didn't I tell you?' Minami said.

'Really? I thought she wasn't leaving until next week,' Takumi said trying to keep his tone of voice normal even though he was beginning to panic.

'No, no, she's getting the evening flight to New York, we said our goodbyes to each other yesterday because she doesn't want anybody to see her off at the airport,' Minami explained.

'Ah, right…' Takumi said and then, hoping it wouldn't sound too strange, he said, 'I'm going to the bathroom.'

'Alright, you know where it is,' Akiko said.

Takumi want back inside the house as quickly as he could and taking his phone out of his trousers' pocket, he dialled a number.

'Itsuki here,' his best friend said answering the phone.

Takumi quickly explained to Itsuki what Minami had just said.

'Got it, thanks Takumi, you're my best friend,' Itsuki said before finishing the conversation. Takumi wished his friend would make it on time for, having heard from Itsuki what Mariko had told him, Takumi believed that the two should really get back together.

Shortly after that, Takumi went back to the garden while, not too far away, at Shibukawa, Itsuki ran out of the office he shared with Iketani and Kenji to find the two friends outside their garage.

'Iketani, I need to leave for…'

'Personal reasons, we know,' Iketani said.

'How do you know?' Itsuki asked frowning.

'When you leave your workplace in such a rush it's always because of personal reasons…so, who's the girl this time?' Kenji explained looking amused.

'Mariko-chan,' Itsuki replied before running to his Levin leaving both Iketani and Kenji standing there open-mouthed.

Itsuki drove as fast as he could to Tokyo's International Airport in Narita hoping he wouldn't find too much traffic as he neared the capital's main motorway hub. He didn't' but when he finally arrived at the airport, and after leaving his car at the short-stay car park, he started wondering whether he would be able to find his ex-girlfriend among all the people that he'd surely find in the terminal.

'Too late for that,' Itsuki said to himself as he started running towards the International Departures section of the Narita Airport.

The first thing he did was check on the board for the departure time of the flight to New York and, with dismay, he saw that there were more than one flight to the American city.

Now what? Itsuki thought disconsolately. Then it occurred to him that Mariko probably had her phone with her so he tried dialling her number.

No answer. The freaking thing was already turned off or, more likely, disconnected. After all, she was leaving the country.

Refusing to give up, Itsuki started searching among the passengers that were busy with the check in procedures hoping he would be able to spot the model's beautiful, shiny black mane in the middle of the crowd.

He couldn't and, after more than fifteen minutes searching and as Itsuki started to believe that it would be mission impossible to find her, he heard someone calling his name.

Turning round, very slowly, he saw Mariko standing right in front of him.

'Mariko!' he shouted and, he was so happy to see her that had to make a superhuman effort to refrain himself from jumping on her.

'What are you doing here?' the model asked.

Itsuki was ecstatic to see that, even though she tried to appear as though as she was angry, Mariko was actually pleased to see him there.

'I couldn't let you go like this,' Itsuki said.

'Itsuki…' she said frowning.

'I know, I know…it's too late, isn't it?' Itsuki said frowning too.

'Yeah, I've already signed the contract,' Mariko said now looking miserable.

Itsuki looked down at the floor between his feet, then, taking a deep breath, he looked back up at her.

'I'll wait for you.'

'Itsuki…'

'No, look, I've been thinking and, even though I still think you deserve so much better than me, I really want to be with you.'

'But I'm going to the U.S. now,' Mariko said.

'I know. Look, I've always believed in destiny, now you're off to New York but, if by the time you come back to Japan, you're still single and you're still interested, let me know. We'll give ourselves another chance, alright?'

Itsuki couldn't believe he'd been so bolt but occasion more than called for such desperate measures.

'Alright,' she said and Itsuki had to look at her in the eye just to make sure she was for real.

'Good,' Itsuki said crossing his arms on his chest and, as usual, wishing he was a lot taller.

'I've got to go now but I'll send you my address in New York as soon as I have it.' Mariko said then, seeing Itsuki's confused face, she explained, 'I'd like you to keep in touch with me.'

'I get it. Have a safe flight and take care, alright?' Itsuki said, then Mariko bent down to kiss him and, not thinking twice, Itsuki hugged her while returning the kiss.

When she finally left, Itsuki felt two tears crossing his cheeks. It was the story of his life: the women he cared about always seemed to leave him.

_To be continued…_


	10. Chapter Nine

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Nine_

As Takumi climbed out of the car, a cold breeze made him shiver reminding him that they were nearing the end of October and maybe he should start wearing the long sleeved, fireproof t-shirt his team provided him to wear underneath his racing suit.

Putting on his parka over the racing suit, he saw his team-mate yawning and that made Takumi smile for, these days, Keisuke didn't seem to do anything else.

'Yeah, you're smiling now,' Keisuke said seeing his friend's smirk, 'how long does Minami have till she gives birth?'

'Three or four weeks, give or take,' Takumi replied smiling even more remembering Keisuke's reaction when Takumi and Minami announced that she was expecting a boy, especially since Takumi had repeatedly declared that he didn't really care about the baby's gender.

'Yeah, then sleep as much as you can in these last weeks of freedom, because after that, you won't remember what eight hours of continued sleep feel like after that,' Keisuke said yawning again.

'Come, on, stop complaining,' Ryosuke said intervening in the conversation, 'what should I say then? I have two kids, you only have one.'

'Yeah, but Kyosuke and Seisuke are angels compared to Ryoko,' Keisuke said reminding Takumi, once more, of the lack of originality the Takahashi seemed to have when it came to choosing names for their kids.

'She's not that bad,' Ryosuke said defending his niece for, he knew that Keisuke spent most nights awake, not because his baby girl was crying, but because he liked looking at her while she slept.

Keisuke just snorted as he climbed into the car so he could do his run then, as he started driving towards the track, he remembered how he had felt the first time he'd seen his little girl.

The labour, thank goodness, had gone without a glitch and, although it had started right in the middle of the night, by the afternoon of September fifteenth and after a natural birth, Kyoko and Keisuke became the parents of a beautiful baby girl.

He knew his opinion was hardly objective but, as he looked at his newborn daughter through the maternity room's window, he couldn't help but to think that she was the prettiest baby he'd seen in his whole life. He also remembered, with a smile, Kyosuke's reaction seeing his baby cousin:

'That's it?' he said looking at the baby as she slept in Kyoko's arms.

'Yes, sweetie, this is your cousin Ryoko,' the new mother said looking at her daughter proudly.

'She's tiny,' Kyosuke observed not looking impressed at all.

'Kyosuke, that's not a nice thing to say,' Akiko said seeing the murderous way Kyoko was looking at her nephew.

'Why not? She also looks like a monkey without the hair,' Kyosuke said and, at that point, Akiko removed her son from Kyoko's presence, just to make sure she could see him become old enough to appreciate that, after so many hours of painful labour, a brand new mum did not welcome those kind of comments.

Seisuke wasn't even interested in the baby for, in his opinion, Ryoko was boring because he couldn't play with her the way he played with his older brother.

All and all, the two Takahashi brothers had had a very negative opinion of their baby cousin but Keisuke knew that soon, they would love to have her around just as Aniki and himself had liked having their cousin Tsugumi around when the three of them were growing up.

Ryosuke, because Tsugumi adored him unconditionally, Keisuke, because he had someone to tease who was nowhere near as intelligent as his older brother and therefore, could not retaliate against him the way his brother could.

By the way, Tsugumi had been thrilled to welcome a little girl into the Takahashi family and had already offered herself to baby-sit Ryoko whenever her parents would need it. Keisuke was insensitive enough to point out to Tsugumi that she had never extended such courtesy when it came to looking after Kyosuke and Seisuke and the twenty two year old justified herself by saying that Ryosuke was a good enough father not to need any further assistance.

That kind of gnawed at Keisuke in a way that not even Tsugumi suspected for he was truly terrified that he would fail in his new job as a father and, for this reason, he'd begged to Ryosuke to give him as many tips as he could.

Ryosuke just limited himself to say:

'Just try to remember what our father did that you didn't like and try to do it better than him.'

Yeah, good tip Aniki, cryptic as ever, Keisuke had thought miserably.

Meanwhile, back in the garage, Ryosuke observed his younger brothers evolutions with the car. That day Keisuke was quite far from the near perfection Ryosuke expected from both his drivers.

'He's braking too late,' Bunta commented.

'Yes, he is,' Ryosuke said agreeing not happy that even Takumi's dad had realised that.

'It's probably because he's tired and his reflexes are suffering from the lack of sleep,' Fumihiro said, trying his best to defend his best friend's younger brother.

'That's not an excuse. I've driven very often without having had any sleep at all before and I drove much better than that. Hell, even Takumi, after sleeping only three or four hours per night, drove better than that and he was just a crappy driver by then,' Bunta commented as merciless as usual before leaving Fumihiro and Ryosuke to go and speak to his son.

'He's just impossible,' Fumihiro said shaking his head.

'Yes,' Ryosuke said nodding.

'I can't imagine him being a grandfather,' Fumihiro commented almost visibly shivering at the very thought making Ryosuke laugh softly.

It was true, imagining that crazy man as a grandfather was as difficult as trying to overtake an F1 car with a bicycle. Ryosuke hoped for the poor kid's sake that he'd be a decent enough driver, otherwise he would have a really hard time growing up with a man like Bunta as grandfather.

At the end of the testing session, Ryosuke called everyone to him so he could give his usual post-session speech.

'Okay guys, you all know that after winning last weekend's race, we're now topping the standings on the championship's classification. You also know that the next race is the last one of the season and, therefore, there will be no points awarded for neither the fastest lap nor the best qualifying positions. However, you should now that we only need to finish 12th in this race since we only need four points to secure the championship.'

The team was about to cheer when Ryosuke put his hand up and, looking as serious as ever, he said:

'This said, I hope I don't need to stress the fact that, whereas it's relatively easy to finish 12th in a circuit we know so well as the Fuji International Speedway, it's even easier to make a mistake that would put us out of the race and would probably mean the end of our championship hopes.'

Everyone nodded gravely for their Team Manager, as usual, was right.

'We need to concentrate harder than ever. Guys, we're a very small step away from becoming one of the few teams which have won both GT300 and GT500 titles, let's not ruin it all by being careless now, alright?'

'YES!' everyone shouted happily.

'Okay, let's go home. As a prize for winning the last race, you guys can take a couple of days off,' Ryosuke said making everyone even happier, 'after that, I'll demand the best from everyone in these last two weeks we have before the last event of the season.'

'You better pray so Minami gives birth when she's due,' Keisuke said to Takumi as they got changed to go home.

'Yeah, I know…I'm kind of nervous that she'll go into labour right during the race,' Takumi said frowning.

'Nah, don't be so negative, it'll be alright,' Keisuke said, 'look at my wife, she gave birth exactly the day Ryoko was due.'

'Yes, but both of your brother's sons were born prematurely,' Takumi countered.

'That's because Akiko's a shortass and she couldn't carry such big babies for much longer than she did,' Keisuke said conscious of the fact that if Akiko ever heard him say that he'd be deader than dead.

'Yeah, that's true,' Takumi agreed.

'Don't worry, everything will be fine,' Keisuke said patting him on the shoulder then going back to finish packing his bag so he could go home to his beautiful baby girl.

Two days later, Takumi arrived home just in time for dinner. He had just been to Shibukawa visiting Itsuki who was still pinning for Mariko and had had to listen to an almost non-stop two hours of constant complaining about how very expensive the international phone calls were.

As he entered the dinning room, Takumi found his mother-in-law there eating on her own.

'Good evening,' he said speaking as politely as he only did with Minami's mother.

'Good evening Takumi, I didn't know you'd be joining me for dinner,' she said, 'if I had known I would have waited for you.'

'Don't worry, Yoshimura-san, it's fine. Where's Minami?' Takumi asked as he sat down and helped himself to some of the food that was on the table.

'Minami's in bed because she wasn't feeling too well,' she explained.

'Really? What's wrong with her?' Takumi asked his mother-in-law worriedly.

'Oh, don't worry about it, she's just feeling tired, but it's normal. I also felt like that towards the end of the pregnancy,' the woman said shaking her head and smiling in a very motherly way.

'If you say so,' Takumi said not at all assured by her words.

'If it makes you feel better, we can tell the doctor tomorrow during the appointment,' Yoshimura-san said.

'What? The appointment is tomorrow?' Takumi exclaimed horrified.

'Yes, didn't Minami tell you?'

'No, she didn't. I thought it was on Friday,' Takumi said, 'that's why I asked Ryosuke to give me the afternoon off.'

'Oh, I don't know what to say,' the woman said.

'I'll call Ryosuke and tell him I can't make it tomorrow for the training session,' Takumi said getting up to get the phone.

'Don't be silly, I'll take Minami to the doctor myself. You can go with her next week when she has her last scan before the birth,' the woman said waving Takumi so he would sit back down.

'I don't know…' Takumi said frowning for he really felt uneasy about missing one of his wife's doctor's appointments.

'Minami will understand, don't worry,' she said resolutely and Takumi, thinking that, after all, this woman was Minami's mother and, therefore the person who knew his wife best, finally gave up.

'Alright, but I'll tell Minami myself,' Takumi said rushing to finish his meal so he could go and talk to his wife.

He left the dinning room so quickly that he didn't even bid goodnight to his mother-in-law then, he ran as he climbed the stairs and made it to the room he'd shared with his wife for almost four years now.

'Hey,' she said seeing him coming into the room.

'Oh good, you're awake.'

'Yes, obviously,' she said smiling sweetly as she tried to sit up on their bed.

'No, no, stay put, I'm going to be joining you in a second, I'm knackered,' he said as he removed his jumper.

'Oh, alright,' she said and, seeing that her husband was taking off his clothes she decided to just watch and enjoy the show.

'Minami…' he said noticing the way the singer was looking at him.

'What?' she asked a bit too innocently.

'You're impossible,' he said shaking his head trying to hide the fact that his cheeks were turning a ridiculous shade of red.

'Oh! I'm moved, even though I look and I feel like a whale, I still manage to make my husband blush,' she said laughing.

'Don't be silly, you don't look like a whale,' Takumi said as he finally got in bed.

'Yes I do, and I feel like one,' she said frowning while looking at her huge tummy.

'I love it,' he said kissing it, 'and I love you,' he said kissing her, 'so, stop complaining.'

'Oh, alright,' she said laughing softly.

'Minami, why didn't you tell me that the doctor's appointment was tomorrow?' Takumi asked.

'Didn't I?' she said.

'No, you didn't,' he said getting serious, 'I took Friday afternoon off because I thought the appointment had been set for that day.'

'Oh well, I can go with Mum instead,' she said.

'Yes, that's what she said,' Takumi replied.

'Alright, so it's solved,' Minami said.

'You're not mad?' Takumi asked.

'Nope, as long as you don't miss next week's scan, Mum and I will be fine by ourselves tomorrow,' Minami said.

'Oh, okay, be careful on your way to the hospital, they're doing some works on the road,' Takumi said.

'Hey, Mum may not be a professional racer like you but she's a good driver.'

'I know, just be careful, alright?'

'I promise, Daddy,' she said a bit too sexily for Takumi's taste.

'That's creepy,' he complained.

'Get used to it, in a few months, you'll have Akito calling you that all the time,' Minami said caressing her tummy as she spoke.

'You really like that name, don't you?' Takumi said frowning at his wife's old fashioned choice of name for their son.

'Yes, I do. He's going to be born in autumn so it's just perfect for him,' Minami said.

'Alright, you win,' he said and, with this, the two of them turned their lights off.

'I love you, Takumi,' she said as they fell asleep.

The next morning, Takumi kissed his wife goodbye as he climbed into the 86 to drive to the team's track for the first day of training after their short break. From the rear view mirror he saw Minami climbing into her mother's BMW waving at him as she did so.

Almost an hour later, Takumi parked his car in his spot of the car park near the team's base and, going into the garage, he saw that the whole team was already there, except his father Bunta, who would join them later.

'Alright guys, now that we're all here, let's discuss our strategy for the next race…' Ryosuke started saying when Takumi's mobile phone started ringing.

'Sorry guys,' he said damning himself for not having turned it off. He took it out of the pocket of his trousers and was going to hang up without answering when he saw that the call was from his wife, 'Ryosuke, it's Minami, can I?'

'Sure, go ahead,' Ryosuke said nodding understandingly. Takumi answered the phone as he walked away from the guys so he could have some privacy.

Then something bizarre happened. Ryosuke and the rest of the team saw Takumi drop the phone onto the garage's floor and, as if in slow motion, he turned round with a stony expression on his face.

'Takumi?' Ryosuke asked worriedly.

'It wasn't Minami,' he said and Ryosuke couldn't recognise that as his driver's voice, 'it was the police. Minami and her mother have had an accident.'

_To be continued…_


	11. Chapter Ten

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Ten_

Everyone stayed still for what seemed like an indefinite amount of time before, as usual, Ryosuke was the fastest among them to start making decisions:

'Where have they taken them?' he asked putting a hand on Takumi's shoulder so the younger man would try to pay attention to what his Team Manager was asking.

'The Tokyo University Medical Centre,' Takumi half mumbled and Ryosuke saw that his driver was quickly falling into a state of shock.

'Right, you come with me, I'll drive you there. Fumihiro, you'll tell Fujiwara-san as soon as he gets here, the rest of you, stay here,' Ryosuke said with the commanding tone of voice everyone had come to associate with the moments when their boss wasn't asking but ordering.

As Ryosuke was leading Takumi to the FC, Keisuke started running to the FD.

'Keisuke, your brother…' Matsumoto started saying.

'Fuck it, I'm not staying here,' Keisuke said not even bothering to turn round to look at the Chief Engineer.

A few minutes later both Mazda were chasing each other and, for once, their speed had nothing to do with any of the shows they used to do to entertain the galleries. This time Ryosuke was racing against time and Keisuke was just trying his best to keep up with his brother.

'It'll be fine,' Ryosuke said knowing how pointless it was for him to make such a prediction, especially since he didn't know how bad the accident had been.

Takumi didn't even reply. His face was as expressionless as ever and only his firmly set jaw betrayed how very nervous, or afraid, or both, the young man was.

When they finally made it to the hospital, Takumi jumped out of the FC even before Ryosuke could stop the car so, in the time it took Ryosuke to park the vehicle, Takumi was already running towards the entrance of the Tokyo University Medical Centre.

Ryosuke joined Takumi at the reception desk as his driver was asking the nurse about Minami's conditions and, as the nurse was doing a research in her computer, a middle aged male doctor came walking towards them.

'You're Fujiwara Takumi, aren't you?' the doctor said and, for once, Takumi didn't feel annoyed at being recognised.

'Yes,' he said nodding.

'Er…Fujiwara-san, I'm going to need you to follow me in there…' the doctor said pointing at a room behind a glass door. Ryosuke swallowed as he saw his brother arrive there.

'What's up Aniki?' Keisuke asked as Takumi followed the doctor into the room, closing the door behind them.

'Aniki?' Keisuke repeated seeing that his brother had his gaze fixed on the glass door and on what was going on behind it. Keisuke decided to look at Takumi as the doctor talked to him.

Keisuke saw Takumi get up all the sudden, toppling his chair over in the process. He then grabbed something that was on the room's table and made it crash against one of the walls. All of this, while he screamed so loudly that even the nurse at the reception desk got frightened.

Both Ryosuke and Keisuke were about to go inside the room to help the doctor as he tried to get Takumi to calm down, when they saw the middle aged man injecting something into Takumi that made him go almost instantly limp.

Then, as carefully as he could, the doctor propped the racer against the wall, got out of the room and asked two orderlies for a stretcher.

'Doctor…' Ryosuke said trying to get his colleague's attention.

The doctor looked at him and shook his head in an unmistakable manner.

'What happened?' Ryosuke asked and when the doctor seemed to be reticent to explain himself, Ryosuke added, 'I'm a doctor too as well as a good friend of Fujiwara-san.'

'Ah, I see,' the doctor said then, taking his glasses off and grabbing the bridge of his nose with the index and thumb of his left hand, he said, 'there was nothing we could do: the driver of one of the trucks they're using to rebuild the road to this hospital lost control of the vehicle and, before he could do anything to prevent it, the truck hit the car where the two ladies were travelling. It fell into a large pit on the ground and while Yoshimura-san was killed instantly, Fujiwara-san and the baby arrived at the hospital alive.'

The doctor paused for a brief second, probably to regain a bit of strength, before saying what Ryosuke had been fearing the most:

'Unfortunately Fujiwara-san died while we were performing an emergency c-section.'

Ryosuke felt his stomach freeze inside him and, looking at his younger brother made him realise that Keisuke hadn't taken the blow any better.

'What about the baby?' Ryosuke found his voice to form the question from goodness knew where.

'The boy's fine. He's a bit premature and will have to remain in the incubator for at least a couple of weeks but he's healthy enough, considering the circumstances in which he was born: Fujiwara-san was very severely injured when she arrived here. It's a miracle the baby survived at all,' the doctor explained.

Keisuke, not being able to take it any longer, he just ran to the nearest bathroom. Ryosuke didn't need his medical degree to know that Keisuke was probably throwing up everything he had in his stomach for he felt exactly like doing the same.

He then watched as the two orderlies put an unconscious Takumi on the stretcher.

'Where are they taking him?' Ryosuke asked.

'I've just given him a mild sedative, he'll wake up shortly and, just in case, we're going to keep him in a room on his own.'

Ryosuke wasn't entirely happy about this but he knew only too well that the doctor was just following the standard procedure when it came to this kind of situations.

The doctor then left and Ryosuke took a seat on a nearby waiting area, he then saw his brother coming out of the bathroom with his face so white that he looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

Keisuke just sat next to his older brother exchanging neither a word nor a glance with him and the two of them remained in complete silence, looking at the floor, for a very long while.

They only looked up when they saw the same middle aged doctor step into the waiting area.

'Fujiwara-san's awake now,' he said and, judging by his face, Takumi's humour hadn't changed a bit.

'I'll go and talk to him,' Ryosuke said and Keisuke was almost glad about that since he really didn't know what to say to his team-mate.

Leaving his younger brother behind, Ryosuke followed the doctor to a door.

'I'll leave you two alone,' the doctor said then Ryosuke entered the room fighting to remove the knot that was tying his throat so tightly he feared he'd choke himself if he tried to speak.

'Takumi?' he managed to whisper.

'Leave me alone,' a raspy grunt came from the stretcher where Takumi was lying down on his side, giving his back to him.

Ryosuke remained there for an instant.

'I said: leave me alone. I don't want to talk to anybody,' Takumi said, his voice sounding even rougher as he increased its tone.

'Fine. We'll be…' Ryosuke started.

'Yeah, I know,' Takumi said and, the way his voice was shaking, Ryosuke knew that his driver was using every bit of his determination not to burst into tears and, for this reason, knowing a man really wanted his privacy in such moments of weakness, he turned round and left the room.

Ryosuke walked back to the waiting room so he could rejoin his younger brother when he saw Bunta Fujiwara walking into the hospital with a very alarmed looking Kyoko following him.

'What's happened?' Bunta asked and, for once, Ryosuke didn't hear a single bit of the arrogance nor the usual carefree tone the old man used when talking to everybody. To Ryosuke, Bunta sounded a lot more like the very worried father he now was.

Keisuke joined the group as Ryosuke, as plainly as he could, explained to both Bunta and Kyoko what had happened.

'Oh my God,' Kyoko said bursting into tears and leaning onto her husband for support. Keisuke just hugged her, trying his best not to start crying too, as he caressed his sobbing wife's hair.

Bunta's reaction, unlike his son's, was one of complete calmness. He took a deep breath, nodded and said:

'I'll go and talk to my son.'

'Fujiwara-san, Takumi doesn't really want to talk to anybody right now,' Ryosuke said.

'I know that,' Bunta said, 'he doesn't need to talk, I'm going to be doing all the talking.'

With that, Bunta Fujiwara walked towards where Ryosuke had indicated Takumi's room was.

'It's over,' Ryosuke said retaking his seat at the waiting room.

'What are you talking about?' Keisuke asked as he tried to get Kyoko to sit down too.

'The championship,' Ryosuke said, 'I'm withdrawing the team from the last race.'

Keisuke didn't even find it in himself to contradict his brother for he, too, agreed that there was no way they could carry on with their racing as if nothing had happened.

'We can't ask Takumi to race after this,' Ryosuke continued and, by the looks of him, Keisuke realised that his older brother was talking more to himself than to anyone else.

'What's going to happen to the baby?' Kyoko said in between sobs.

'Shit! The baby,' Keisuke said wanting to kick himself for having forgotten something as important as that.

'I only know that Takumi's going to need all the help he can get right now,' Ryosuke said looking at his brother and sister-in-law.

'Yes, the press is going to go nuts with this,' Kyoko said realising the hugeness of the situation they were in.

'We're going to need to stop them before they get to Takumi,' Keisuke said.

'Absolutely, there's no way Takumi can deal with the media right now,' Ryosuke agreed.

'It's going to be an enormous commotion when they find out Minami's dead,' Kyoko said and, both Takahashi brothers looked at her making Kyoko realise that she had just said aloud what no one wanted to hear. She felt brand new tears coming up to her eyes.

'Like I said, we need to shield Takumi from all of that,' Ryosuke said.

'I wonder what crazy old man is doing in there,' Keisuke said looking at the door.

Behind that door, things were a lot quieter. Bunta had just entered the room as quietly as possible and, instead of saying anything, he had just sat on a nearby chair remaining there, in complete silence, for a long time.

'What do you want?' Takumi finally said, without turning round.

'I just wanted to be here for you,' Bunta said, using the tone of voice he reserved for when he wanted to get certain reactions from his son.

'I don't want to talk to anybody,' Takumi said stubbornly.

'That's fine. We can just be here for a while,' Bunta said and, just to make a point, he moved in his chair trying to find a more comfortable position.

'Dad, I really want to be left alone,' Takumi said, this time turning round to face his father.

'I thought you didn't want to talk,' Bunta said crossing his arms on his chest, following a very carefully studied choreography that got him exactly what he'd been after: Takumi's face when from expressionless to show profound disbelief.

'What the hell do you want from me?' Takumi said, finally getting up from the stretcher.

Bunta looked up at his son and said, very slowly as if he were speaking to a kid:

'Nothing at all, I just figured I'd be here in case you need me.'

'I don't need you,' Takumi said, almost shouting.

'Fine, then I'll just sit here quietly,' Bunta said and Takumi couldn't believe his ears.

'Dad, please, leave me alone,' Takumi said and Bunta realised that he only needed to push it a bit more for his son to do what he desperately needed to do.

'Nope. This is a free country and I want to sit here.'

'Dad!' Takumi exclaimed sounding exasperated.

Finally, Bunta got up.

'I swear son, you've always been so stubborn.'

'Look who's talking,' Takumi said and, as he looked as his old man, Takumi felt that the ice that had formed somewhere inside his chest breaking into a million pieces stabbing him as little knives finally making him acknowledge the pain he'd been feeling ever since the doctor had said those hateful words.

'Minami's dead,' Takumi said.

'I know son, I know,' Bunta said, finally dropping his act and getting back to being a worried father.

'What am I going to do?' Takumi asked and the desperation in his voice made Bunta's insides cringe.

'Nothing son, you don't need to do anything,' Bunta said hoping his son would collapse before he did.

'But the baby needs me,' Takumi said.

'Yes, he does. That's the only thing you have to worry about: your son,' Bunta said knowing all too well the feeling for, an eternity ago, he'd been forced to face the very same situation.

'I can't do that by myself,' Takumi said still looking at his father.

'You're not by yourself. You've got loads of friends who are more than willing to help you. And, son, you've got me.'

'Dad,' Takumi said his voice finally beginning to break up.

'Come here son,' Bunta said extending a hand towards Takumi who, giving everything up, crushed himself against his father and, finally, screamed every ounce of the pain he had kept bottled up.

Bunta just stayed there hugging him and patting his son's head understanding so extremely well what Takumi was feeling that, for the first time since his own wife's passing, Bunta felt like crying.

'There Takumi, there…cry as much as you want,' Bunta said as his son's screams became horrifyingly painful sobs.

If the situation had not been so desperately dramatic, Bunta Fujiwara would have laughed out loud for it had to be some sort of joke that fate had reserved the same destiny to both him and his son: meeting the woman of their lives, having a baby son with her only to lose her shortly afterwards.

Fortunately for Takumi, Bunta was more than prepared as to what to do to help his son get on with his life. However, this fact wouldn't make things any easier for, Bunta knew, it would take a lot more than a miracle for his son to be anywhere near as happy as he'd been in these past few years.

_To be continued…_


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Eleven_

The three Takahashis had been waiting for a really long time when, at long last, they saw the door open and a completely grief-stricken Takumi stepped out of the room closely followed by his father.

As he got up, Ryosuke saw that both his brother and his sister-in-law were getting up too. The oldest of the Takahashi brothers took a couple of steps towards Takumi when he saw Bunta shake his head. This made Ryosuke stop and, before he could say anything, Takumi, with his voice still sounding as raspy as it had done earlier, he said:

'Ryosuke, I've…' he stopped, cleared his throat and, after taking a deep breath, tried again, 'I've been talking to my father and I've decided to race in the last event of the season.'

'Takumi, you don't need to…' Ryosuke started but Takumi shook his head and, interrupting his Team Manager, he said:

'I do. I made a commitment when I signed the contract with you guys. I'll race so we win the championship, after that, it's over: I'll retire so I can look after my son.'

Ryosuke was shocked to hear that, not only because he hadn't expected Takumi to be able to bring himself to think about the race, but hearing the determination in his voice in such a delicate moment of his life made Ryosuke realise, once again, how extremely special this guy was.

'Takumi…' Keisuke started.

'Thanks for coming here with him. I'll take care of things now,' Bunta said and, the judging by the way he spoke, Ryosuke understood that Fujiwara-san was issuing them an order and that they weren't allowed to argue.

'Alright, we'll go home now,' Ryosuke said and, as Keisuke was about to protest, he made a gesture with his hand that made Keisuke close his mouth and stay put.

Then, both Fujiwara walked away from them as they made their way to the neonatology ward where Takumi would, for the first time, see his son.

'Aniki!' Keisuke exclaimed, 'we can't allow him to quit!'

'Keisuke, we can and we have to. That decision is not ours to make, if Takumi no longer feels like racing, and after what's happened I perfectly understand him, it's entirely up to him. Like I said earlier, we need to support him and, unfortunately, that includes every decision he'll make from now on,' Ryosuke said.

'But…'

'Let's go home Keisuke. As much as I'd like to think of him as such, Takumi is not a member of our family, he's got his father and this is something they'll have to handle just the two of them.'

'Ryosuke, I thought you wanted to help Takumi,' Kyoko said and both brothers couldn't help but to notice the accusing tone in the woman's voice.

'Yes, I do Kyoko. I'll help him the only way I can,' Ryosuke said and then Keisuke, finally understanding his brother's point of view, he said, speaking to his wife:

'Let's go home…'

Two days later and as the whole nation was still recovering from the shock of having lost one of its most famous pop stars, Takumi, surrounded by his closest friends and the only surviving member of his family, prepared himself to say his last goodbyes to his wife and her mother.

Staying true to his word, Ryosuke used every bit of his family's influence to keep every single journalist away from the temple where the funeral was being held.

'Mariko,' Itsuki whispered seeing the model there. She was wearing a black suit and a pair of huge black sunglasses covering her beautiful eyes.

'I can't believe she's dead,' the girl said through the knot that was tying her throat.

Itsuki didn't know what to say, especially because it had been him the one in charge of informing the model about the horrible accident that had destroyed Takumi's family even before it had the chance to be fully formed.

'How's Takumi coping?' Mariko asked.

'Not well. He's been locked up in his house except for when he goes to see Akito,' Itsuki said.

'He's used the name Minami wanted,' Mariko commented and Itsuki nodded, for some reason, the model started crying again.

'Mariko,' Itsuki said as he hugged her trying to soothe her as much as he could.

'What am I going to do without her?' Mariko said, her voice broken by the tears.

'I don't know. What are we all going to do without her?' Itsuki said for, it was true that everyone had come to love Takumi's wife for the nice woman she was, not only for being a nation-wide famous singer.

'Look at Takumi,' Mariko said and Itsuki looked at his best friend as he knelt next to the picture of his wife with the characteristic black ribbon hanging from the top of the frame.

With his head bowed down and his shoulders shaking, probably trying to stop himself from crying, Takumi looked the perfect picture of sorrow and, not even the incense's fumes that went straight into his face seemed to bother him.

'We should do something,' Iketani said and Itsuki was shocked to see his friend and business partner standing next to him. Kenji, Mako and Sayuki were also there.

'What can you do when someone has lost the love of his life?' Kenji asked.

No one seemed to be able to find an answer to that and, by the end of the funeral, all they could do was to try their best to give a bit of strength to Takumi so he could carry on with his life.

'Takumi, I'm here, for whatever you need. Call me and I'll be there, ok?' Itsuki said putting a hand on his best friend's shoulder.

'Thanks Itsuki,' Takumi managed to reply.

'We too,' Iketani said and Takumi nodded then, stepping onto a small platform, Takumi, with his father next to him, said:

'I'd like to thank everyone for coming here today...Minami…she would…be so happy…'

Then, his face cringed and he covered it with his left hand. Bunta then put his arm around his son's shoulders and made him step off the small platform.

'Let's go home,' Bunta said and Takumi nodded.

That was the last time they all saw Takumi till the day when the team was packing up to go to the Fuji International Speedway for the last race of the season.

'I don't think he'll show up,' Kenta whispered to Tsuyoshi, one of the junior mechanics.

'Kenta, shut up and keep working!' Keisuke exclaimed angrily having overheard him.

'Sorry…' Kenta started saying when they saw a blue GC8 entering the car park. Keisuke then smacked Kenta on his head and said:

'That'll teach you.'

Takumi got out of his father's car and, after waiting for his father to join him, he walked up to where the team was making the last arrangements before they could leave.

'Hi,' he said and Keisuke, observing him, saw two huge bags under the young man's eyes.

'Hey,' Keisuke replied.

'Everything's ready, shall we go?' Ryosuke said, looking straight in the eye at Takumi.

'Yeah, the sooner the better,' he replied with the air of someone who just wanted to get the thing done as quickly as possible.

'Are you sure he'll be fit to drive?' Fumihiro asked as Takumi and his father walked back to their car.

'Fumihiro, I don't think he's fit for anything right now but, he's still Takumi and if he does his best, it'll still be a superior performance,' Ryosuke said.

'He's one of a kind,' Keisuke said and, once again, reminded himself that he would do the impossible to make Takumi change his mind if he stayed resolute in his decision to quit racing.

Fumihiro shook his head as he walked to the van he'd drive to Fuji trying to go through the checklist he and Kyoko had made in order to do the only thing their Team Manager had asked them to do that weekend: keep, at all costs, the journalists away from Takumi.

The team arrived to the circuit and, as they were unpacking the materials they'd need for the first of the free practice sessions, a photographer managed to get into the team's box and, predictably enough, tried to get a picture of Takumi as he prepared himself for his run.

'Hey!' Keisuke said grabbing the intruder by the collar of his shirt.

'Oi! I'm doing my job here,' the photographer complained and Keisuke, adopting his best gangster tone of voice, said:

'I'll give you two options: one, you and your fucking camera leave this box this instant in one piece, or two, I beat the crap out of you and I blow your camera to smithereens. I personally prefer option two but I'll be generous and I'll let you choose.'

'Alright, I'm gone,' the photographer, very wisely, decided.

'If I see you anywhere near here, it'll be option two, got it?' Keisuke said as the guy was leaving and that made him go a bit faster.

'Sorry, he…' Kyoko started and Keisuke turned to her and said:

'Just do your job so I don't have to do it for you.'

Then, still fuming, Keisuke left the boxes on his way to the motorhome.

Ryosuke and Fumihiro, having observed the whole scene, shook their heads.

'I should have withdrawn. There's no way a team in this psychological condition can get anything right,' Ryosuke said.

'I know,' Fumihiro said as they saw Takumi get into the car with his father standing nearby.

'It's amazing to see the way Fujiwara-san doesn't seem to leave his son's side,' Ryosuke commented and Fumihiro noticed that there was just a very faint trace of envy in his Team Manager's voice for he probably was thinking of his own father.

'Yes, ever since Minami died, Fujiwara-san seems to have taken it upon himself to make sure Takumi doesn't have to do anything more than the strictly necessary,' Fumihiro said.

'Fumihiro, you probably don't know this since you still haven't got kids but, as a father, my worst nightmare is to see my kids not having a better, happier life than I did or, suffering the same kind of miseries we had to go through ourselves,' Ryosuke explained, 'for Fujiwara-san seeing history repeating itself with his own son is probably the worst thing that could happen to his family.'

'I guess so,' Fumihiro said.

Then, as the two men observed as Takumi entered the track with their SE they had yet another surprise: Takumi, not only was driving faster than usual but his lines were a lot surer, his driving much sharper and, overall, his performance was not just superior, it was absolutely phenomenal.

'What the…' Matsumoto said seeing the times Takumi was making.

'Who in the hell is that?' Fumihiro said shaking his head in disbelief.

Ryosuke limited himself to biting his lower lip and frown for, yet again, Takumi was showing to the world that he was indeed one of a kind, a freak of nature, someone with so much raw talent that, even in the worst possible moments, he could still outclass everyone else.

The Team Manager silently agreed with his younger brother: if Takumi retired after this race, Japan, and the world, would lose one of the best drivers the motor racing industry would ever see.

Somehow and, despite the rain that fell incessantly on the track throughout the weekend, they still managed to first score their last pole position of the season and, when the race took place, Takumi offered himself to start it.

From the very first lap, Ryosuke saw that Takumi was behaving rather oddly and, after observing him going through a few corners, he realised where the problem was.

'Why is he driving like that?' he asked Fujiwara-san.

'I've just told him we could go home as soon as he finished his stint,' Bunta said.

'Ah, I see,'

Within ten laps, Takumi had already reached the car in last position and with a series of suicidal manoeuvres he started overtaking every single car he found along his way.

'He really doesn't need to do that,' Fumihiro commented.

'No, he doesn't,' Ryosuke said but, he knew very well that, at least for that race, he had absolutely no power over Takumi. In this race, Takumi was driving exclusively for himself.

'I just hope he doesn't end up crashing,' Fumihiro said.

'My kid's better than that…' Bunta said and, for the first time since tragedy had hit his family once again, the old man went back to being himself.

'He's driving the same way as when he did the deliveries, isn't he?' Ryosuke asked and Bunta nodded.

'Yep. He just wants to get this done with so he can go back home,' Bunta confirmed.

'Alright,' Ryosuke said allowing himself a small smile.

By the time Takumi came back to the boxes, the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team was leading by a massive one and a half minutes, Takumi had smashed the track's fastest lap record several times so, for Keisuke, winning the race was just a walk in the park.

This said, and as they had previously agreed with the Race Director and the Japan Automobile Federation, the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team concluded their adventure winning both of the GT500 titles but without going through the usual podium celebration.

The festivities were suspended and, even the journalists didn't seem to complain about it for, everyone knew in which low spirits the team had had to race.

As they packed up, for the last time ever, Ryosuke couldn't help but to think that this was definitely not the way he wanted to conclude his involvement in the racing world.

Yes, he had achieved everything he had aimed for and these past five years had been the happiest of his entire life, however, what had happened in the previous two weeks seemed to have rendered everything rather vain and now, Ryosuke couldn't wait till he got back home so, coming Monday, he could start his new life managing his family's hospitals.

'Ryosuke,' he heard Takumi say, making him turn round.

'Yes?'

Takumi bowed very deeply before getting back up and say:

'Thank you for everything you've done for me in all these years.'

Ryosuke felt a knot form in his throat.

'Takumi, it's you we should be thanking, even though we all have worked towards these titles, it's mainly thanks to you and Keisuke's efforts that we've got them.'

Takumi nodded and then he said:

'It's been a great experience. Thank you.'

'Takumi,' Ryosuke said before his driver could leave the garage. Takumi turned round to face him and said:

'I'll keep in touch.'

With that, Takumi, followed by his father, walked up to the GC8, climbed into it, and left the circuit. Ryosuke fervently hoped that this would not be the last time he'd see Takumi Fujiwara.

_To be continued…_


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Twelve_

As he parked the aging AE86 in his usual spot by the Fujiwara Tofu Shop, Takumi couldn't help but to notice the little lights and signs hanging from most shops and houses reminding him, once more, that it was almost Christmas.

While it was Akito's first Christmas, it was also Takumi's first Christmas without Minami. He didn't know what it was with Christmas and women that made them get totally crazy about the decorations and the presents and all the related paraphernalia.

With a pang, he remembered the previous year's when he had spent more than three hours at the tree shop so Minami could find a tree she liked. She had then spent several hours decorating it with her mother until both women were absolutely satisfied with the way the poor tree looked.

Takumi had managed to get away so he could avoid having to help them with the task. He regretted that so bitterly and he now wished he'd been involved in every single detail of that operation.

He took a deep breath and shook his head as to get rid of the memory. It had already been two months since Minami's death and he still found himself constantly haunted remembering all the moments they'd shared.

Getting inside his father's shop, thinking of how bad he'd felt when, at his almost twenty five years of age and after having been away for the best part of the previous four, he had moved back in with his father. Yet again, it had been necessary for in reality, Takumi could not have coped with living in Minami's house by himself while having to look after Akito.

For this reason, he'd decided to close down the house and, after making sure he could do so, left it there until Akito would be old enough to decide what to do with it and the rest of the patrimony Minami had left them after her death.

Takumi was resolute about the fact that, unless it became absolutely necessary, he would never touch a single yen of his late wife's money. As far as he was concerned, that money was Akito's and, when the boy would become of age, Takumi would give everything to him.

Akito would be an extraordinarily rich young man when he turned twenty but Takumi had no intentions whatsoever of letting him know until that time came along.

'Dad, I'm home,' Takumi said as he entered the small living room in his father's house.

'Akito's been fed and changed, now he's sleeping,' Bunta said, once more impressing Takumi with his abilities taking care of small babies.

'Did he give you a hard time when you fed him?' Takumi asked.

'Of course not, who do you think you're talking to?' Bunta said in his usual arrogant manner that made everyone feel like an idiot.

'Sorry, I forgot you're the best when it comes to babies,' Takumi said a tad on the sarcastic side.

'Son, I'm the best when it comes to most things.'

Takumi laughed softly before heading upstairs so he could check on his son. He had put a foot on the first step when his father's voice made him stop.

'Takumi…'

'Yes Dad?' he said without removing the foot from the step.

'Keiichi just called,' he said referring to the Drift King, Keiichi Tsuchiya.

'And?'

'He said Keisuke's been hired by his team, they're going to have a go at rallying.'

'And?' Takumi repeated closing his eyes and shaking his head expecting the obvious answer.

'He said if you'd like to join them.'

Takumi, slowly, walked back to the living room and said:

'Dad, I'm retired. I don't want to have anything to do with racing ever again.'

'Son, you really don't want to change your mind about this, do you?' Bunta said.

'No, and I wish you people stopped stressing me,' Takumi said frowning.

'Fine, I get it. I'll tell Keiichi that you're not interested,' Bunta said.

'Thanks,' Takumi said and, as he returned to the stairs, he heard his father get up to get the phone.

They sure were persistent! Takumi thought bitterly. He was alright the way he was now: taking care of his son, helping his father with the shop and seeing his friends every now and then. That was more than enough for him.

After all the pressure from being part of a team, first with Project D, then in his short-lived professional racer career, going back to the solitude and familiarity of Mt Akina's downhill at four o'clock in the morning had been a very welcome change.

Right now, Takumi didn't want any pressure at all. He was having more than enough coping with his wife's death and trying to learn as fast as possible how to be a good father. The rest, he just didn't want to even think about it and, since he had made more than enough money for him to get by for quite a few years, he didn't even need to think about getting himself a proper job.

So, looking after Akito and doing the deliveries were the only two things he really wanted to do.

The next day, as they had agreed, Takumi went to pick Itsuki up so they could share a drink by the lake.

'How've you been?' Itsuki asked him as soon as he got onboard the AE86.

'Not too bad. Akito keeps me busy enough for me to have less time to think,' Takumi said honestly.

'I see…look, Takumi, I need to tell you something,' Itsuki said with the tone of voice of someone who's about to start a difficult topic of conversation.

'Uh-huh?' Takumi said.

'Well, the guys didn't know whether it was a good idea or not but…'

'Itsuki, if it has anything to do with racing, forget it,' Takumi said and Itsuki shook his head.

'No, no…it's just that Kenji has…well, Sayuki-chan has…'

'Itsuki, what is it already?' Takumi said beginning to lose his patience which, by the way, these days was at a historically low level.

'Kenji and Sayuki-chan have decided to get married,' Itsuki finally said.

'Ah, alright. Congratulations,' Takumi said with a flat tone.

'You don't mind? I mean, they're prepared to postpone the whole thing until the spring,' Itsuki said.

'Why? Kenji's been waiting forever for Sayuki to say yes. He should marry her before she changes her mind again,' Takumi said raising his eyebrows.

'Yeah, I know, it's just that…' Itsuki said and as Takumi finally understood his friend's point, the familiar painful cold feeling returned to somewhere inside his chest.

'This has nothing to do with Minami. They should just do whatever they want to do. I'm…I'll be…I don't care what they do,' Takumi finally said.

Itsuki flinched at the coldness of his friend's voice but, reminding himself that he had to be very understanding with his best friend, Itsuki just let it go.

'How is it going with Mariko?' Takumi asked all of the sudden.

'Er…well, I guess…' Itsuki replied, shocked to hear Takumi express any interest in his newly reborn relationship with the model, 'she's thinking of quitting her modelling career…'

'Why is that?' Takumi asked.

'Well, after the trouble she had with Maybelline for, well…you know…leaving New York for the funeral without their permission, she's thinking that the whole industry can go to hell.'

Takumi smirked for he knew that Mariko was a terribly strong woman who could easily do this kind of things without thinking twice.

'What's she gonna do?' Takumi asked.

'She's got a half idea of opening her own shop where she'd sell accessories, you know, things like handbags, earrings and the likes…'

'That's expensive,' Takumi commented.

'She's got loads of money so she can afford it,' Itsuki commented with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

'Your business is doing well, isn't it?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, it is. Iketani, Kenji and I are very happy with it,' Itsuki said and his friend spent the rest of the time talking about the difficulties they had encountered when they had first opened their workshop…

Takumi was more than willing to listen for, while he listened to his best friend's ramblings, his mind stopped thinking of a beautiful, lovely girl with an angel's voice.

He got home after a few hours and went straight to his room where he had his son's cradle.

'Hey little guy, how are you?' he asked as the baby opened his eyes, 'let's go downstairs so we can get you something to eat, alright?'

Takumi, holding his son the way his father had instructed him to do so, went down the stairs and into the kitchen where he found his father preparing their lunch.

'Did he cry while I was gone?' Takumi asked.

'Nope, he's a good baby, not like you,' Bunta said busying himself with a couple of carrots.

Takumi was about to look for a good reply to his father's remark when they heard the door's bell.

'I'll get it,' Takumi said walking towards the house's entrance with Akito still in his arms.

'Hey,' Keisuke said as Takumi opened the door, 'he's grown so much…' the spiky haired man commented.

'He's a baby, that's pretty much all the do,' Takumi countered.

'Yeah, I guess so,' Keisuke said refusing to be taken aback by Takumi's dry tone, 'how have you been?'

'Usual,' Takumi said.

'Can I?' Keisuke asked pointing at the inside of the shop.

'Yeah, of course,' Takumi said stepping aside so his former team mate could come in.

'Have you heard?' Keisuke asked even before they made it to the living room.

'Yeah, congratulations,' Takumi said.

'What about you? Are you sure…'

'Keisuke, look, I won't say this again: I'm not going to go back. I'm fine the way I am.'

'That's not true,' Keisuke said frowning.

'Are you calling me a liar? That'd be a first,' Takumi said starting to feel annoyed.

'No, sorry…but you can't be alright like this,' he said looking around himself at the tofu shop.

'Why not?' Takumi said defensively.

'Because you don't belong in here Takumi! You belong behind the wheel of a racing car going as fast as you can, and you know it goddammit!'

'That was before.'

'Takumi, Minami's dead and we're all horribly sorry about that, believe me, but…'

'Keisuke, don't,' Takumi warned him.

'Takumi! For pity's sake! You're throwing away your life!' Keisuke finally exploded and Akito, hearing the man's roar, made a face as if he wanted to start crying. This upset Takumi even more.

'It's my life and I'll throw it away if I want to.'

'You've got way too much talent to waste it like that!' Keisuke continued, completely ignoring every single warning Takumi had issued so far. This last sentence though, had awakened a memory in Takumi: of the day he and Minami first met. She had complained about the pressure she felt because of her talent and Takumi had told her that just because she was talented at doing something, it didn't mean she had to do it.

Remembering his first conversation with the woman who'd become the mother of the very baby he was now holding, their baby, made Takumi lose his patience and, grabbing the front of Keisuke's shirt with his only free hand, he screamed:

'I'M NOT COMING BACK, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?'

Hearing his father shouting did it for little Akito and, as he started crying, Bunta stepped out of the living room to join the two young men inside his shop.

'What's going on in here?'

'Fujiwara-san! You need to speak to your son! You must…'

'Nope, I don't need to do anything. My son's made a decision and I'm going to respect it,' Bunta said crossing his arms on his chest as Takumi released Keisuke from his grasp.

'Fujiwara-san!' Keisuke said pleadingly.

Bunta limited to shake his head while Takumi tried to get his son to calm down.

'You're running away Takumi! You are!' Keisuke said shaking with fury, then, making the worst mistake of his life, he turned to Bunta Fujiwara and said, 'and you, you're letting him do it because you couldn't get over your own wife's death so you don't want Takumi to do it either!'

Bunta's eyes, for the first time in a long while, widened with the shock of hearing those words. He then squinted again and with an icy tone of voice, he said:

'Get out of my house, now.'

Keisuke brought his hand to his mouth finally realising what he had said.

'I'm…'

'Out! And don't come back here ever again!' Bunta said, sounding the angriest Takumi had ever heard him.

Keisuke, seeing that there was nothing else he could say, looked at the still crying Akito and, frowning, he shook his head as he turned round to the shop's front door.

As he climbed into his FD, he started getting afraid of the reaction his brother would have when he'd hear about this, even more so because Ryosuke had repeatedly asked him not to contact Takumi until the young man would do it himself.

Driving back to his home in Maebashi, Keisuke couldn't help but to think that it would take ages before he could see his ex team-mate again.

_To be continued…_


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Thirteen_

It was nearly four o'clock in the morning and Takumi was, like every day at this same time, helping his father to load the old Subaru with the tofu that needed to be delivered to the hotels in Mt Akina and just as they were closing the last of the small containers, they heard someone coming down the stairs and into the shop.

'Akito, what are you doing awake?' Takumi asked his son.

'I can't sleep,' the five year old boy said, stating the obvious.

Takumi looked at his son, then looked at his father and said:

'Do you think I could take him with me?'

'Sure, why not,' Bunta said shrugging his shoulders.

'Alright, Akito, go and get a jumper and put your shoes on,' Takumi said to his son.

'Am I coming with you?' the kid asked wide-eyed and, seeing his father nod made the kid scream happily as he ran back up to his room.

'What a brat, same as his father,' Bunta said but Takumi had already seen the smile in his old man's face.

Shortly after, Akito was there, wearing his favourite jumper and sitting down so he could put his shoes on. Bunta went to his grandson so he could help the kid do his shoelaces as Takumi went back into the living room to get the kid's car seat.

'Dad! I don't need that anymore!' Akito complained, 'I'm five and a half now and those seats are for babies!'

'Akito…'

'Takumi, it's fine if he doesn't use it. I never used car seats with you when I took you in the car for the deliveries,' Bunta said and Takumi refrained himself from saying that that explained many things.

'Alright, come on then, we're already late,' Takumi said putting his hand forward so his kid would take it. Akito looked at the hand, then up to his father and shook his head.

'I-am-not-a-baby,' he said marking every one of his words, trying to make the concept as clear as possible so his father could understand him.

Takumi raised his eyebrows in disbelief and, shaking his head too. As he boarded the GC8, with Akito climbing into the passenger's side, he began to understand quite a few of his father's points.

'Ready?' Takumi said as he checked that his kid's seatbelt was properly fastened.

Akito just nodded, his eagerness so obvious that made Takumi smile. His kid was dying to see a good performance and Takumi was going to give him just that.

He started the Subaru and, as it was tradition, Bunta gave Takumi a cup of water, not because Takumi actually needed it, it was just that both men found certain habits difficult to get rid of.

'What's that for?' Akito asked seeing the cup of water.

'You'll see, kid, you'll see…' Bunta said tousling his grandson's hair.

'We'll just go then,' Takumi said and with this, he inserted the first gear, released the clutch and the emergency brake as he pressed the accelerator and then they were off.

Bunta looked at his car as it quickly disappeared in the distance and, taking a deep breath, he went back in to the shop to clean it up.

Meanwhile, Takumi started the uphill taking it easy so he wouldn't damage the tofu and, more importantly, wouldn't frighten Akito too much. The second of his considerations was rather pointless for, half way through the uphill, and even though he was going at almost one hundred kilometres an hour, his kid said:

'Dad, is this how you drive every night?'

'More or less, why?' Takumi said.

'It's boring,' Akito said with the kind of brutal honesty only kids could manage.

'What?' Takumi asked frowning.

'Can't this car go any faster?' Akito asked now looking at his father intently.

'Sure it can,' Takumi replied.

'Then, make it go faster or I'll fall asleep,' the kid said and Takumi couldn't help but to laugh.

'Alright,' Takumi said pressing the accelerator a bit further down and soon the car was going more or less as fast as Takumi could take it without damaging the tofu.

'Now, that's better,' Akito said smiling and, by the looks of him, he was having the time of his life.

They finished the deliveries and then, at the usual car park, Takumi turned the car round and got back to the road, facing downhill.

'Right, Akito, now I want you to hold yourself onto the seat as tightly as you can.'

'Why?' his kid asked.

'Because we're going to do some serious drifting,' Takumi announced and, even though Akito probably didn't understand the concept very well, Takumi could see that he definitely liked the way it sounded.

'We're going to go fast, aren't we?' Akito asked grabbing himself to the seat the way his father had instructed him.

'Yep,' Takumi replied.

'Yeepie!' the kid shouted happily.

'I swear, you remind me more and more of your grandfather,' Takumi commented.

'Really? Thanks Dad!' Akito said and, for the life of him, Takumi could not understand how anyone could ever take that as a compliment but, again, Akito seemed to simply adore his grandfather and, to the kid, everything his grandfather did was just great.

After that, Takumi started accelerating the GC8 and, at the first corner, he did a four wheel inertia drift that lasted all the way from that corner to the next one.

'Wow, that was cool!' his kid said making Takumi feel very proud of himself for having managed to impress his kid.

By the end of the pass, and as they were nearing the city, Takumi was the one who was impressed: not only his kid hadn't passed out in his first real downhill experience but, as they parked the car next to the shop, he said:

'Let's do it again tomorrow!'

Takumi shook his head and, surrendering, he said:

'Alright, if you're awake, I'll take you with me every night until you start school.'

'Thanks Dad!' the kid said suddenly hugging his father in what was one of the kid's usual spontaneous displays of affection. That aspect of his personality was probably inherited from his mother Minami, Takumi thought, realising that, five and a half years had managed to make him able to think of his late wife feeling only a very faint ache in his heart.

He still missed her but now it was no longer the desperate pain he'd felt in the first few months after her death. He had just grown used to the idea that he'd never see her again and, with the help of both his father and his group of old friends, Takumi was beginning to be a serene person again.

It helped that Akito was a human earthquake who seemed to be able to get into all sorts of trouble for, watching over him was more than a full time job. In Takumi's opinion, to prepare oneself for parenthood, one should have to go through the same training the soldiers in the Special Forces went through.

A few hours later, and after Takumi and Akito had got some extra sleep, they both got up so they could get a quick breakfast before heading into the city where they would meet with Takumi's oldest and best friend, Itsuki.

'How are you doing kiddo?' Itsuki exclaimed his seeing his godson get out of Takumi's AE86.

'Uncle Itsuki!' the kid shouted as he ran towards him. The two of them hugged and Takumi just shook his head. It was hard to decide which of the two was more effusive when it came to showing their feelings…

'Hi,' Takumi said to his friend who, after putting Akito back down on the ground, returned the greeting with a quick wave of his left hand. Takumi saw the wedding band on his friend's ring finger. He still couldn't believe that the last of the Lonely Drivers had finally capitulated as, six months before, had married his long time girlfriend Mariko.

Takumi quickly looked at his own wedding band, the one he still refused to take off for it was the only thing, excepting Akito, naturally, that still connected him to Minami. He knew it was a bad idea to continue wearing it for, as Itsuki had pointed out numerous times, it gave a false message to women who, seeing it, would refrain themselves from approaching him.

That was fine for Takumi because he wasn't really interested in finding himself a girlfriend or nothing like that. He firmly believed he was alright the way he was and, especially considering Akito's age, it would disrupt his kid's life way too much if his father started a new relationship.

If he ever wanted to find himself a companion, and he seriously doubted that, he would have plenty of time in the years to come.

'Uncle Itsuki, you know what we did last night?' Akito's voice took Takumi out of his reverie.

'Nope, what did you do?' Itsuki said crouching next to the kid so he could be at eye-level.

'Dad took me in one of his tofu deliveries!' the kid exclaimed enthusiastically.

'Really? And was it scary?' Itsuki asked eyeing his best friend clearly thinking Takumi had gone even madder than he already was.

'Uncle Itsuki! Of course it wasn't scary! It was so much fun! And you know what?' Akito asked and Itsuki, returning his gaze to look at the kid, shook his head, 'Dad's going to take me with him EVERY NIGHT!'

'Is that so? But you'll have to wake up very early for that…' Itsuki objected.

'Ah, sleep is for pussies…I'm big now so I don't need to sleep…' Akito said.

'Akito, don't say 'pussies',' Takumi said disapprovingly.

'Why not? Grandpa says it all the time…' Akito said and Takumi made a mental note to tell his father to refrain from using certain words in the kid's presence.

'Well, Grandpa is Grandpa, you are you, and I'm telling you not to say that word again, alright?'

'Oookay…I get it…' Akito said rolling his eyes as he did so.

They decided to just take a walk around the city and, predictably enough, soon Akito had something wrong with him.

'I'm thirsty,' he announced.

'Alright, I'll go and get you a juice,' Takumi said and, exchanging a quick look with Isuki, his friend understood that he was to look after Akito while Takumi entered a nearby convenience store.

Takumi was walking around the shop trying to find the beverages section when he bumped onto some woman making her drop everything she was carrying.

'Oops, I'm sorry ma'am,' he said as he crouched to pick up the stuff from the floor.

'Takumi?' the woman said and, looking up, Takumi found himself in front of the last person he would have expected to find there.

'Mogi…'

'It is you then!' Natsuki said smiling then, the way only she knew how to do, her smile transformed incredibly fast into a frown as she said, 'it's been ages! Where have you been?'

'Here,' Takumi said pointing at the floor.

'Here? In this shop?' Natsuki asked feigning herself dumb.

'No, silly, in Shibukawa. I moved back here a few years ago,' Takumi said not wanting to go too much into detail there.

'Ah, that's a coincidence. I just moved back here myself,' she said and then she started laughing as the two realised that they were still crouching. She got up and Takumi, after finishing picking up the last of the things he'd made her drop, got up too.

'This is yours,' he said handing her the stuff he had in his hands.

'Yes, well,' she said and, as she took what Takumi was giving to her, she saw his wedding ring and her smile disappeared.

'I'm going this way,' Takumi pointed one of the aisles with his thumb.

'Alright, I'm going that way,' Natsuki said pointing at the cashier with her head.

'Alright, er…I'll see you around,' Takumi said.

'Sure,' Natsuki replied and Takumi couldn't help but to detect a high level of scepticism in her voice.

When he finally picked up an orange juice for his son and a couple of cans of soda for himself and Itsuki, Natsuki was no where near to be seen.

'Oh well,' he muttered as he got out of the shop.

'Takumi, you won't believe who I've just seen!' Itsuki said excitedly.

'Natsuki Mogi?' Takumi said and Itsuki's face went to show deep disappointment.

'You saw her inside the shop?' Itsuki asked.

'I bumped onto her, more like,' Takumi explained.

'And?' Itsuki said and Takumi was saved the trouble to say anything when Akito, fed up of being ignored, said:

'Who's that Natsu-whatever?'

Before Takumi could come up with an answer, Itsuki said:

'She was your father's first girlfriend.'

Takumi really wanted to kick Itsuki as hard as he could but, since Akito was there, he tried his best to repress the homicidal instincts his best friend made him feel.

'Uncle Itsuki, is that the woman you've just greeted?' Akito asked and, seeing Itsuki nod, the kid added, 'she was nice looking.'

'What do you know about these things? Here have your juice,' Takumi said feeling a bit more than annoyed at his best friend, 'why don't you tell Uncle Itsuki about where Grandpa took you last weekend?'

Takumi's attempt at changing the topic worked wonders for, in the following half an hour, Akito kept both adults entertained with his in-detail explanation of his very first karting experience.

A few hours later, and as Takumi was getting ready to go and help Akito with his nightly bath, the phone in the house started ringing.

'I'll get it,' he said for his father was busy in the shop, 'Fujiwara Tofu Shop, how may I…'

'Takumi?' he heard a voice he hadn't heard in years say.

'Ryosuke-san?' he asked.

'I though you had finally dropped the formalities,' his old Team Manager said sounding amused.

'Yeah, sorry, what can I do for you?' Takumi said and, once again, he found himself getting all flustered, making him feel like he was an eighteen year old kid all over again.

'I was just wondering if my brother and I could have five minutes of your time,' Ryosuke said.

Takumi, taking a deep breath, said:

'Ryosuke, if it's about racing…'

'It's about racing but, it's nothing to do with you, well it's got to do with you but it's not you who we're interested about,' Ryosuke said sounding so confusing that Takumi started frowning.

Then, seeing that Takumi wasn't saying anything, Ryosuke said:

'We'd like to talk to you about your son.'

_To be continued…_


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Fourteen_

By the time Takumi hanged up the phone, he really needed to sit down. That day had been, to say the least, an extremely weird trip down memory lane. First, meeting Mogi Natsuki, a woman he hadn't seen in almost ten years. He still hadn't had the time to analyze how he'd felt about that and, being honest with himself, he didn't really feel like thinking about it all that much.

Now this request coming from his former Team Manager…

Takumi shook his head and, remembering he had a kid who was waiting for him to have his bath, Takumi got up and went upstairs deciding to think about everything later, once he'd get Akito to sleep.

The next day, the phone rang in Itsuki's house.

'Hello?' Mariko said picking up the receiver.

'Er…hi, this is, er…, I'm looking for Takeuchi Itsuki, is he there?'

'No, he's at his garage right now, who are you?' Mariko said curious to find out who this woman was.

'Er…I'm Mogi Natsuki, I'm a classmate of his, from high school…' the woman explained and Mariko had to repress a chuckle for this Natsuki seemed to be rather nervous.

'Ah, I see, well, you can try and call him at the garage,' Mariko suggested.

'Right, yeah…well, the thing is…'

'You don't have the number, do you?' Mariko said.

'No, sorry,' Natsuki said.

'Alright, let me get it for you,' Mariko said and, after giving the number to her, the former model hung up the phone only to pick it up to ring her husband.

'Takeuchi here,' he replied.

'Hi hon, it's me, listen, a woman called Mogi or something like that has just called asking for you,'

'Really?' Itsuki said sounding positively surprised.

'Uh huh…do I have to get worried having a woman calling you at home?' Mariko said with badly veiled jealousy in her voice.

'NO! Of course not, honey, she's an old classmate of mine…she was Takumi's girlfriend in our last year of high school,' Itsuki hurried to explain so his wife wouldn't get mad at him. He heard his wife gasp.

'Ah, wow…I…I've given her your office's phone number, is that alright?' Mariko asked.

'Yeah, don't worry…I wonder what she wants though,' Itsuki said frowning.

'So do I,' Mariko said.

'We'll soon find out, if she ever calls me, that is,' Itsuki said.

'Alright, let me know what she wanted, you know how curious I am,' Mariko said laughing softly.

'Sure,' Itsuki said and then, just in case Natsuki actually called him, he rushed to hang up the phone.

'This is weird,' Itsuki said talking to himself as he stared at the silent phone.

Half an hour later, Itsuki entered the coffee shop located a couple of blocks away from his garage.

'Hi!' Natsuki greeted him, 'thanks for meeting me with such a short notice.'

'It's alright,' Itsuki said sitting at the table where his former classmate was already having her coffee.

'What did you want to talk about?' Itsuki said after ordering a coffee for himself.

'Er…this is going to sound very weird,' Natsuki said making Itsuki think that, from someone like her, he expected almost everything.

'I'm all ears,' he said.

'The thing is…has Takumi re-married?'

Itsuki sprayed the whole table with the coffee he'd just been drinking.

'No, no, Takumi's only been married once,' Itsuki said shaking his head while he and Natsuki busied themselves wiping the table clean before the waitress could see the disaster Itsuki had caused.

'Ah, then it's even worse than I thought,' Natsuki said with a very sad tone of voice.

'Mogi…'

'He hasn't got over his wife's death, has he? That's why he still wears his wedding ring,' Natsuki said and Itsuki shook his head gravely.

'Nope, and, to be honest, I don't think he will ever get over it. I take you know what happened.'

'Who doesn't? It was all over the news,' Natsuki said sounding, if possible, even sadder.

'Yeah, that's true,' Itsuki said remembering the huge commotion Minami's death had caused. It had taken a lot of effort to shield Takumi and little Akito from all the pressure from the media. Still now, Takumi was always worried someone may recognise him and would want to take pictures of Akito.

'He said he moved back here a few years ago,' Natsuki commented.

'Yes, he's living with his father in the tofu shop,' Itsuki said.

'Ah, I see,' Natsuki said.

'Look, I'm going to be honest with you, Takumi is not the guy you used to know in high school. His wife's death has changed him a lot. Well, he had already changed because of her. Minami managed what none of us had been able to do for Takumi: she made him happy in a way no one and nothing else had ever done before. Before she died Takumi laughed so often that you wouldn't have recognised him,' Itsuki explained not sure whether Natsuki really wanted to hear any of this.

'I saw him and Mina-chan in some pictures…he looked really happy in them and he never looked away like he used to…he always seemed to be looking at her, in all of them,' Natsuki said looking down at the table.

'Yeah, I noticed that too,' Itsuki said beginning to feel bad for Natsuki, 'Mogi, maybe this is none of my business but, you still have feelings for Takumi, don't you?'

Natsuki looked at him briefly before going back to look at the table.

'Yes,' she finally said with a very small voice and Itsuki couldn't help but to feel very sorry for her.

'Mogi, I'm not going to lie to you.'

'I know, look, it's fine…I've been in love with Takumi for such a long time that for me it's like breathing. Even if I know he'll never reciprocate ever again.'

'Natsuki, he's been through a lot in these past few years, like you said, he's not anywhere near over his wife's death. He's accepted it and thanks to his son he's more or less carrying on with his life but, I don't know if he'll ever be ready for another relationship.'

'I know,' Natsuki said and, judging by the way she spoke, Itsuki knew the woman was about to start crying.

'Hey, I'm not saying it's impossible though and, to be honest, I'd be the first to be happy if he ever found himself someone to share his life with. Don't tell him this but, I don't think it's healthy the way he's handling things right now.'

'What do you mean?' Natsuki said finally looking at him.

'In my opinion, he's closed himself up in this shell, keeping all his feelings outside it. He's trying his best to avoid confronting his demons, you know, he's like hiding his head in the sand hoping that if he stays like that long enough his problems will disappear.'

'Yeah, that's typical of Takumi,' Natsuki commented.

'Yes, well, I don't know if I should say this to you but, in my opinion it will take a lot of effort for Takumi to get out of his shell and, to be honest, I don't think he can do it on his own.'

'Do you think there's anything I could do?' Natsuki said and, as Itsuki had feared, she was getting hopeful.

'Mogi, it'd be really hard work. Not even his father has managed to do anything for him.'

'I know it'll be hard but if there's anything I can do, I'm prepared to do it,' Natsuki said with the kind of strong determination he'd always admired so much from his former classmate. Shaking his head in defeat, Itsuki said:

'Why don't you start by giving him a call? Invite him out for a coffee and talk to him.'

'Do you think he'll accept?'

'I don't know, but you can always try,' Itsuki said.

'That's true,' Natsuki said frowning as if she was deep in thought.

'You know, I think that if there's anyone who can help Takumi, that's you,' Itsuki suddenly said.

'Why is that?' she asked looking startled.

'Because, whereas Minami was the love of his life, you, Mogi, were his first love…that has to count for something, hasn't it?'

'But I hurt him, very badly,' Natsuki said.

'Yes you did,' Itsuki agreed, 'but to hurt Takumi like you did, he must have loved you a lot and, like my wife always says: where there are ashes, there has been a fire that can be rekindled.'

They parted a few minutes later and, as Itsuki made his way back to the garage, he really wished Natsuki the best of luck for, knowing Takumi as well as he did, the poor woman would need it.

That evening, Takumi was helping his father cook their dinner when the old man said:

'Who was on the phone last night?'

'Er…when?' Takumi said taken by surprise.

'Last night. The phone rang and you got it,' Bunta said.

'Ah, that,' Takumi said trying to buy himself some time to think up an answer.

'Was it him?' Bunta said and, by then, Takumi knew his father probably had overheard at least his half of the conversation.

'Yeah,' Takumi said nodding.

'What did he want?' Bunta asked and Takumi found strange that his father kept asking all those questions.

'It's not important,' Takumi said.

Then, seeing his father putting down the knife, made Takumi look at him.

'He wanted to speak to me about Akito,' Takumi finally admitted.

'Why?'

'Dad, I said it wasn't important. I'm not going to speak to Ryosuke, not about Akito, not about anything else,' Takumi said beginning to lose his temper.

'Why not?' his father said startling Takumi in the process.

'Dad, I thought that you, of all people, would want me to stay away from the Takahashi,' Takumi said raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'Takumi, it's been five and a half years. I think that if they call you after all this time it must be important.'

'It's all your fault,' Takumi said giving up the whole cooking thing.

'Mine?' Bunta said sounding genuinely surprised.

'Yes, if you hadn't taken Akito to the karting club, none of this would have happened,' Takumi said angrily.

'What does that have to do with anything?' Bunta asked and Takumi, after sighing heavily, said:

'When you took Akito to the karting club, someone saw his driving and was impressed enough to tell Keisuke.'

'And?' Bunta asked a bit too eagerly making Takumi feel a bit more than suspicious.

'You knew that Keisuke has opened the Takahashi Motorsports Centre, didn't you?' Takumi asked with his eyes squinted almost as much as his father's.

'Yep, I did,' Bunta said as he took out his packet of cigarettes, lighting one up.

Takumi could not believe his ears.

'Dad, tell me that when you took Akito to the karting club you didn't have any hidden agenda.'

'It's getting late,' Bunta commented looking at the kitchen's watch.

'DAD!' Takumi shouted warningly.

Bunta took a long puff from his cigarette and, with al the calmness of this world, he said:

'Everything's gone just as I planned.'

'What in the hell are you talking about?' Takumi blurted now seriously pissed off with his father.

'Son, I know you don't want to have anything to do with racing anymore but, I've seen that Akito's as enthusiastic about cars as I was when I was his age. I just took him to the karting club to see if he was any good.'

'I should have known you had something in that sick mind of yours,' Takumi said hoping that the accusing tone in his statement would remove that stupid smile that had formed in his father's face. Unfortunately, Takumi knew that it took a lot more than that to make his father lose his cool.

'He's good,' he said instead making Takumi do a double take. Had his father just said something as nice as that about Akito?

'Really?' Takumi asked.

'Yes. He's got the right rhythm and he's not afraid of the speed,' Bunta said.

'No, he isn't,' Takumi agreed, remembering his son's reactions in the car as it went at full throttle in Mt Akina's downhill.

'I think you should give him the chance to learn how to be faster,' Bunta said.

'Dad, I don't want him involved in that world. At least not yet,' Takumi said.

'It's your call, after all, you are his father but, if you asked me, I'd do it…'

'I don't know,' Takumi said.

'What are you afraid of?' Bunta asked making Takumi hate the way his father always seemed to know what was going on in his head.

'Nothing,' Takumi said.

'Then, what's the problem if Akito's given this opportunity? Besides, it's not like the Takahashi want him to become a professional racer.'

'Dad…'

'I think you should let Akito join that karting school,' Bunta said.

'WHAT? KARTING SCHOOL?' a high pitched voice came from the kitchen's door.

Takumi and his father turned round to see a wide-eyed Akito with his little face lit up like a freaking Christmas tree.

_To be continued…_


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Fifteen_

All three Fujiwara remained silent as both Akito and Bunta stared at Takumi. While Akito was staring at his father eagerly waiting for an explanation, Bunta just looked rather amused and, if Takumi knew his father half as well as he thought, the old man seemed to be looking forward to seeing how Takumi got himself out of this mess.

That shitty old man! Takumi thought for the first time in many years as he desperately tried to find a way to make Akito believe that he had misunderstood what his grandfather had just said.

Then, quite literally, he was saved by the bell, well, the ringing of the house's phone.

'I'll get it,' Takumi said running away from the kitchen as fast as he could while dodging his kid who had put himself on the doorway, probably in a vain attempt at trying to block his father's only escape route.

'Fujiwara Tofu Shop,' he answered finding himself a bit out of breath.

'Hi! It's a really good thing your father hasn't changed the number…'

'Mogi?' Takumi asked while thinking that maybe he should have stayed in the kitchen.

'Yes, it's me…er…listen, I'd like to ask you something…'

Takumi definitely didn't like the way that sounded but, for the sake of not being an ass, he asked:

'What is it?'

The line went mute for a bit making Takumi think that maybe she had hanged up. Unfortunately, and after hearing her taking a deep breath, she said:

'Would you like to have a coffee with me, say tomorrow at four o'clock, at the new coffee shop they've opened by the station?'

Takumi was trying to find a way to refuse politely when he felt a small hand tugging at his trousers. Looking down, he saw Akito crossing his arms in front of him and making it very obvious that he was still waiting for an answer to his question and, by the looks of him, the boy was getting rather impatient too.

'Alright,' he said a microsecond before his brain actually registered the word.

'Really?' Natsuki asked sounding utterly astonished.

'Er…well…' too late, Takumi, too late, he thought to himself, 'yeah, let's meet up,' he finally said surrendering to the inevitable.

'Ah…oh…okay,' Natsuki said and, by the way she sounded, she was as surprised by his answer as he'd been distracted when giving it.

He muttered a rushed 'see you then' and, slowly, he put the receiver back on the phone. Then, just as slowly, he turned round to face his son.

'Dad, what did Grandpa mean?'

Takumi pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand. He was getting a seriously painful headache.

'Not now Akito, we'll talk about this later,' Takumi said knowing that there was no hope in hell that his son would give up so easily.

'But Dad…' Akito predictably enough insisted.

Takumi walked back to the kitchen and said:

'Dad, I'm going for a drive, please make sure Akito gets in bed before nine.'

Then, Takumi, doing his best to ignore Akito's loud protests and the ironic look his father was giving, took the AE86's keys, his denim jacket and, after putting his shoes on, he got out of the shop and walked to his car.

He had never needed to get away from somewhere as quickly as he could more than at this precise moment.

Takumi made it to Akina's lake probably breaking his own uphill record and, after parking his car, he walked all the way to the lake's shore. There, he sat down on the grass and stared at the lake's surface, turned silvery due to the moon's reflection, trying to get his thoughts back into some coherent order.

'Fuck off Dad!' he exclaimed angrily, grateful that at that time of the evening, there was nobody around so no one would think he was crazy.

He was extremely angry at his father for, once again, scheming behind Takumi's back for his own purposes. He had done it that time, ages ago, when he had tricked him into racing Keisuke. That had triggered everything else and, that single incident, had changed Takumi's life forever.

Now, and again due to his father's intervention, his quiet existence was being threatened. His father didn't understand: he liked the way things were and he definitely didn't want for things to change.

Are you sure? A voice came from somewhere in his subconscious.

'Great, now I'm hearing voices,' Takumi said while he thought that he was talking aloud to himself too and that wasn't a very good thing either.

Unfortunately, he had to admit at least one thing: his father, as usual, had nailed it with only one single question. What was he afraid of? He had refused to answer to that question or, rather, he had lied when he had replied to it.

He was terrified, simply, purely and truly terrified. How could he not be? Five and a half years ago he had made a choice, a choice he hoped he could live for the rest of his life with: quit racing, for good.

With a sigh, Takumi decided to, at least this once, be honest with himself:

He missed racing. He missed the adrenaline rush that he felt when his car was surrounded by other, maybe much faster cars. He missed the screeching of his tyres as he drifted on a racing track.

And, more than anything else, he missed being part of a team. The Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had become for Takumi the closest thing he'd ever had to a family, with all due respect and consideration to his father and to Minami, Takumi felt that as a member of the racing team, he was part of something special.

If it wasn't for Akito, his current lifestyle would suck so much that he'd probably end up a drunk or worse. The worst bit was that he knew that it was entirely up to him to change it. He only needed to make an effort.

The only problem was that it was too late for him. He'd probably done the very thing Keisuke had told him he'd do: throw away the best years of his life, wasting his potential by running away from a world where he belonged. This made Takumi fall into a dark pit of anguish.

At nearly thirty years of age it was probably too late for him to go back to the race tracks. Yeah, it was too late for him, Takumi thought miserably. Yeah, too late for him but not for Akito, he then thought.

So the little punk was good at driving, Takumi thought with a smile slowly curving his lips.

Well, that was to be expected, Akito was, after all, the son and grandson of two of the best racers this prefecture had ever seen.

That made Takumi curious for he was actually looking forward to seeing his son in action onboard a kart.

'Shit, I'm getting excited,' Takumi said, again, talking aloud to himself.

Yeah, alright, he'd give his son a chance. If Keisuke wanted to see for himself if Akito had the potential to become a member of his karting school, then Takumi owed to his kid the opportunity to prove to himself and to everybody else that he deserved the Fujiwara surname.

With this newfound resolution, Takumi got up from the grass, he walked back to the Toyota and, as he saw his car parked there, on its own, he remembered something else that he thought he had entirely forgotten.

Nearly twelve years before, in this very same car park, inside that very same car, he had received his very first kiss.

'Shit…Mogi…' he muttered slapping his hand onto his forehead, leaving it there.

Yet another problem, he thought bitterly. Why on earth had he accepted when she'd asked him out? More importantly, what in the heck did she want from him after all these years?'

He would find out, the next day, when he'd go to the coffee shop where he, for some reason, had agreed to see her.

Right now, he had more pressing matters to attend to and, driving downhill as fast as he could, he got back home just as his father was tucking Akito in his bed.

'Hey, I just wanted to tell you that, next Sunday, we'll go to see that karting school, alright?'

Akito jumped out of bed and ran to his father leaving Bunta looking at his son disapprovingly.

'Really? Really? Really?' Akito kept repeating as he bounced while clinging onto his father's denim jacket.

'Yes kid, I've decided that I'll allow you to show them what you can do,' Takumi said smiling at his son in a very fatherly way.

'Did you hear that Grandpa? I'm going to the karting school!' Akito said running back to his grandfather.

'Yep, but before you're going anywhere, you're getting in bed this instant,' Bunta said trying his best to appear severe but failing rather miserably.

'Yes sir!' Akito said jumping back into his bed.

As both Bunta and Takumi said goodnight to the kid, closing his room's door behind them, they heard Akito scream happily.

'What a brat,' Bunta said taking a cigarette out of a packet.

'Yeah, same as his father,' Takumi said smiling while walking down the stairs.

Bunta observed his son and he smiled too: for the first time since Minami's death, his son's smile carried itself all the way to his eyes.

It was a good start, Bunta thought to himself.

The next day, at five minutes to four, Takumi parked his father's Subaru at the station's car park. From there, he walked to the café where he was supposed to meet Natsuki.

Unsurprisingly, she was already there, reminding Takumi of the fact that Natsuki, unlike some other women, was always extremely punctual.

'Hi!' she waved at him nervously.

'Hey,' Takumi replied taking a few instants to look at her properly. She hadn't changed all that much in these ten years. Her hair was a lot longer, falling all the way to the middle of her back but that only made her look even more feminine than when they were in high school.

She was still very cute although her features had become a lot more womanly. Her body, hugged by a pretty short sleeved dress, was still as great as it had been back when she was considered the best looking girl in their year.

'Takumi?' she said making him realise that he had probably just stared at her for an indecent amount of time.

'Yeah?' he asked trying to recover some of his dignity.

'Er…shall we go inside?' she asked shyly.

That was new, Takumi thought, if Natsuki wasn't something that was shy. This Natsuki he had in front of him looked almost as though as she was afraid of him.

'Yeah, of course.'

They sat down at the table the waitress had taken them to and, after getting a coffee for Takumi and a cappuccino for Natsuki, the two of them were left alone.

'So, how have you been?' she asked conversationally.

'Not bad,' Takumi said shrugging, the he asked, 'So, what's brought you back to Shibukawa?'

'I got a job offer here and I decided to accept it,' Natsuki explained.

'What do you do?'

'I'm a teacher, an elementary school teacher,' she said looking at Takumi as expecting some sort of reaction from him.

'Ah, I see,' he simply said.

'You know how I've always liked children..,' Natsuki commented.

'Yeah, I remember..,' Takumi said.

'Unfortunately, I don't have any of my own,' Natsuki said trying to sound as casual as possible.

Takumi looked at her naked left hand and asked, 'you're not married?'

She laughed softly before shaking her head.

'Why not?' he asked and making Natsuki want to scream the truth at him.

'Haven't found the right guy yet,' she lied instead.

Takumi didn't know what to say to that so he just took a sip of his coffee.

'You've changed so much Takumi,' she suddenly said making him look at her.

'You think so?' he asked.

'Yes. You're…different…'

'Different how?' he asked.

'Don't take this the wrong way but, it's like, like you care about things now,' Natsuki said.

'What?' Takumi said with a confused expression on his face.

'Is just that before, when we…well, when…during high school, you really didn't seem to care about anything,' she said and Takumi couldn't miss the fact that she appeared to have problems saying that the two had been dating.

'That's not true,' he said.

'You've got to admit that there weren't many things that made you react,' Natsuki insisted.

'Yeah, but there were a few that did.'

'Was one of these things me?' she asked boldly making Takumi look at her again.

'You know you were,' he said looking very serious and Natsuki felt her throat get drier: were, past tense.

'Takumi, there was one thing you promised me, do you remember?' she said suddenly changing topic.

'What was it?'

'That you'd let me ride in your Toyota again. You still have that car, don't you?'

'Of course I do,' Takumi said finally smiling.

'Then, why don't we go for lunch one of these days, maybe during the Golden Week?' Natsuki said trying not to sound too hopeful.

'Mogi, I have a son now.'

'I know. Bring him with you if you want, like I said, I love kids,' Natsuki said.

'That's not the point, I…'

'Takumi, you don't need to answer now. Just promise me that you'll think about it, alright?'

Takumi looked at her for a while before nodding.

'Alright, I'll think about it.'

Then, as Natsuki was going to say something else, Takumi's face froze with horror. Natsuki looked at whatever he was looking at and realised that he was staring at an incredibly beautiful, tall woman that had just entered the shop.

Too late to do anything, Takumi saw that Mariko had already spotted them. Crap! He thought desperately.

Of all the people in the world, it had to be Minami's best friend who saw him with another woman.

_To be continued…_


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Sixteen_

Takumi looked like if he'd entered some sort of trance as he stared at Mariko while the woman bought a bag of muffins and waved at Takumi. Only when he saw that she was leaving the shop Takumi reacted: he got up and, after mumbling something incomprehensible even to himself, he started running towards the shop's door.

Stepping out onto the pavement, he looked both ways and, after spotting Mariko walking down the street, Takumi continued running after her.

'Mariko! Wait!' he shouted making some of the pedestrians look at him. Thankfully, the woman had heard him and, turning round, she said:

'Hey, sorry I didn't come and say hi, I thought you were…busy,' Mariko said with a half a smile.

'Mariko, it's not what it looked like,' Takumi hurried to explain to the woman, feeling that, for some reason, he needed to make sure Mariko didn't get any strange ideas.

'Wasn't that girl Natsuki Mogi? Your girlfriend from high school?' Mariko asked raising her beautifully done eyebrows, shocking Takumi in the process.

'How do you…'

'Itsuki told me about her,' Mariko explained now fully smiling.

'Ah, I see,' Takumi said reminding himself that he had to very seriously injure his best friend the next time he saw him.

'Hey, don't worry, it's cool,' Mariko said.

''No, no, you don't understand, she's just a friend…well, not even that…I don't even know what she is anymore,' Takumi stuttered making Mariko frown.

'Takumi, listen, it'd be okay if she was more than a friend, you know?'

'What?'

Mariko looked at Takumi for a bit then, closing her eyes briefly while she took a deep breath, she opened them again and said:

'Takumi, I think I knew Minami almost as well as you did and probably much better than her own mother and, I know that she'd hate to see what's become of you.'

'What?' Takumi repeated unable to believe what he was hearing.

'Takumi, you're nearly thirty years old, let's face it, you're not getting any younger and…'

'Mariko, what are you saying?' Takumi said feeling increasingly confused.

Mariko then looked at him sternly and, after shaking her head, she said:

'I'm saying that Minami wouldn't want you to be alone for the rest of your life.'

Takumi didn't really know what to say to that and, seeing that he remained silent made Mariko say:

'If you like this girl…'

'No! It's not like that,' Takumi said defensively.

'Well, I'm saying that if it was, it'd be okay Takumi. Just because Minami died doesn't mean you've got to lock your heart away forever…just think about it, alright?'

Takumi looked at Mariko utterly bewildered then, slowly, he nodded.

'Alright, now I better go, Itsuki and the guys are waiting for these,' she said pointing at the bag of muffins she carried in her hand.

'Okay,' Takumi said and, with this, Mariko just walked away from him.

By the time Takumi went back to the café, he saw that Natsuki was waiting for him just outside the shop.

'Er…sorry…I…' Takumi said and, feeling like an idiot, he realised that he had left without taking care of the bill. He went to get his wallet out but Natsuki shook her head.

'It's fine, I invited you out after all,' she said smiling making Takumi feel even worse.

'Well, I'm going to head home now,' Takumi said and Natsuki nodded once.

'Here, this is my new phone number. Call me if you want to go for that lunch, alright?' Natsuki said handing him a piece of paper.

'Okay,' he said taking it.

'Well, bye then,' she said before turning round.

'Mogi…' he said before he could stop himself.

'Yes?' she said turning round.

'Do you want me to give you a lift back home?' he said.

Natsuki looked at him for a bit, then, shaking her head, she said:

'No it's okay, I'll be fine.'

With this, he saw her walking away from him and Takumi, after staring at her for a while, turned round too and walked back to the car.

As he drove back to the tofu shop, he thought of what had been going on in the previous hour. It had been so weird sitting with Natsuki, having a coffee with her. It almost made him feel like they were both eighteen all over again and Takumi still didn't know what to make of that.

For the next few days, Takumi just carried on with his life as he had done for over five and a half years until, very early on Sunday morning, Akito entered his father's room.

'Dad, Dad, wake up! It's Sunday!' the boy said literally jumping onto his father as he tried to continue sleeping, 'Come on Dad! Wake up!'

'Akito…' Takumi grunted still half asleep.

'Come on! Get up!' the kid insisted beginning to remove the bed covers off his father.

Takumi looked at the clock on his bedside table: it was six o'clock in the morning.

'Akito!' Takumi exclaimed now sounding rather annoyed at his son.

'We've got to get ready to go to the karting school!' Akito said, totally ignoring his father's protests.

'It's six in the morning! We just came back from the deliveries!' Takumi said while sitting on his bed and as Akito got out of it standing, with his arms crossed on his chest, as though as he was not so patiently waiting for his father to get up.

'So?'

'So, you're going back to bed and, when I decide it's time to go, we'll go…' Takumi said getting back in bed.

'But Dad…'

'Akito, bed, now,' Takumi said turning round giving his back to the kid.

'Okay,' his son said drawing the word and expressing very clearly how disappointed he was as he left his father's bedroom to go back to his own.

Much, much later, father and son had breakfast together and left Bunta alone in the tofu shop to drive all the way from Shibukawa to Gunma's capital city Maebashi.

'This is so cool!' Akito said unable to hold himself still.

'Akito, I want you to understand one thing,' Takumi said wanting to prepare his son, 'I'm just going to speak to a man called Takahashi Keisuke to see what he wants from you. I doubt you'll be going anywhere near a kart today.'

'Why not?' Akito said frowning.

'Well, I need to make sure I know what he expects from you,' Takumi explained.

'But you know this guy, don't you?'

'Yes, I do. He was my team mate when I was a professional racer,' Takumi said and Akito just looked at his father hoping he would elaborate for Akito rarely heard his father talk about his racing past. Unfortunately for the kid, Takumi chose to stay quiet.

'Takahashi Keisuke,' Akito muttered to himself.

Almost an hour later, they arrived at the address Ryosuke had given Takumi and found themselves in front of a very modern looking installation. Clearly, the Takahashi had invested a lot of their money building this place but again, Takumi knew that they could more than afford it.

'Alright, Akito, stay in the car while I look for Keisuke,' Takumi said as soon as they had parked the AE86.

'What? Dad, no way, I'm…' the kid started protesting but stopped himself seeing his father's serious expression.

'I'll only be gone five minutes, okay?' Takumi said.

'Fine,' Akito said pouting more than ever but, as soon as Takumi left the car, and making sure his father was far enough not to see him, Akito opened his side's door and, getting out of the car, started exploring the place and he soon saw what he had been looking for: the karting track.

On it, he saw two karts circling around the circuit, obviously racing each other and, not far from there, he spotted something else that made the kid smile.

He walked there as quickly as he could, hoping no one would stop him before he reached his target: a garage full of nearly brand new karts.

'Wow,' he said as he saw the astonishing number of vehicles he had in front of him and, not thinking twice, he grabbed one of the helmets that were lined up on a nearby shelf and, putting it on, he climbed into one of the karts.

He really wasn't expecting that it'd turn on as he pressed the button at the right of the steering wheel but, to his utmost shock, the engine came alive as soon as he released the button.

'Wow,' he repeated for he was way too excited to be able to say anything else. He then had an idea: looking ahead of him, into the circuit, he decided to join the two karts so he could race against them.

Doing what his grandfather had told him he had to do to drive this kind of vehicles, he pressed the accelerator softly and, as it started rolling forward, Akito felt again that sensation he'd liked so much when he had first driven one of these things.

Soon, Akito entered the track and, still unnoticed by the other two karts, decided to push it as much as he could so he'd catch up with them.

It was so much fun that Akito started laughing out loud making his kart veer dangerously close to the wall of tyres that delimited the track.

'Oops…' he said and then he started laughing again as he managed to regain control of the kart.

A couple of corners later, he saw the first of the karts not too far away from his.

'Right, let's see if this works,' he said to himself while putting into practice what his grandfather had explained to him only theoretically.

He pressed the kart's accelerator pedal a bit more and glued his kart to the back of the one in front of him then, just as his grandfather had told him, he released the accelerator very briefly, steered to the outside of the corner and then slammed the accelerator again.

Akito shook his head in disbelief seeing how extremely easy it had been to overtake the kart and was about to prepare himself to do the same with the one in front of him when he saw that its driver, who had been shouting all the time, had stopped the kart across the track.

This made Akito brake rather violently making the small tyres of his vehicle skid sideways.

Was this guy crazy or what? Akito thought angrily then, seeing the driver get out of his vehicle made Akito think that maybe, just maybe, he was in for a lot of trouble.

He got confirmation of this fact when, someone, more than likely the other kart's driver, grabbed him rather painfully by his arm and started shaking him.

'Who in the heck are you?' the driver, a boy not much older than him, shouted.

Akito didn't say anything for he knew that he'd be in a lot more trouble if he reacted in any way.

'Seisuke, let him get out of the kart,' the other driver, an even older boy said.

Akito decided to obey and, slowly, he got out of the kart and removing his helmet, he put it on top of the kart's seat.

'We asked you a question,' the oldest of the boys said and, as Akito tried to appear unconcerned by the whole thing, he saw a man approaching them.

That scared him, especially because this man looked quite menacing with his spiky, bleached hair and his big build.

'What's going on in here?' Akito heard the man ask as he got closer.

Time to run away, Akito decided all the sudden and, as he tried to escape, he felt a huge hand grabbing his already sore arm.

'Who are you? Do you know that this is a private property?' the man asked him as Akito turned round to face him as bravely as he could.

'Let go of my arm, now,' he said.

The man, surprisingly enough, did as he was told and then, he said:

'Alright, now, what's your name?'

'Fujiwara Akito', he said and then something weird happened. The guy's face went all soft and, as he whispered something Akito didn't quite hear, the man went down on his knees and hugged him. That startled Akito more than if he had been slapped.

'Hey, what in the heck are you doing?' Akito said trying to free himself from the man's grasp.

Without letting him go, the man pulled him away just a little and smiling softly, he said:

'Of course you can't remember me! You were nothing but a tiny baby when I last saw you.'

'What? Do you know me?' Akito asked feeling confused.

'I'm Takahashi Keisuke, I used to race with your father,' the guy said and that made Akito finally realise who he was talking to.

'Ah, yeah, I know of you. Dad and I came here today because he wants to speak to you.'

The man then looked like he wanted to ask him something when Akito saw his father walking towards them looking everything but happy. Now he was in trouble, Akito thought biting his lower lip.

'Akito, I've been looking for you all over the place!' Takumi said frowning at his son.

'Takumi,' Akito heard the man called Keisuke say in a weird tone of voice.

He then saw his father look at the man for a long while before saying:

'I'm sorry if my son caused you trouble…'

Keisuke looked at Akito, then at his nephews and then he smiled.

'I think he's just caused some damage to my nephews' ego.'

'Uncle Keisuke, who is this?' the boy called Seisuke asked, pointing at Akito while looking extremely upset.

'He's Fujiwara Akito, my team-mate Takumi's son. You do remember about him, don't you?'

The two boys looked at Takumi wide-eyed for they had heard wonderful things spoken about this guy from both their father and uncle. Then they looked at Akito and the oldest of the boys asked:

'How old are you?'

'Five and a half,' Akito said with his most serious sounding voice. The two boys looked at each other in dismay.

'Aniki, if this gets out of here, we're finished,' Seisuke said.

'How long have you been racing karts?' Kyosuke asked Akito who, looking very confused, confessed:

'I don't race with karts. This was only my second time driving one of these things.'

All three boys were startled by Keisuke's loud laughter.

'He truly is your son,' he said talking to Takumi who just shrugged then, getting serious, Keisuke said, 'Let's go to my office so we can talk.'

_To be continued…_


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Seventeen_

The three kids and Takumi followed Keisuke all the way to what looked to be the main building of the motor sports Centre where, Takumi supposed, Keisuke managed the entire structure from.

It was kind of weird to think of Keisuke as a responsible adult who was in charge of an organisation such as this one, with employees and a clientele to deal with. He had known, through magazines and the sports TV channels that Keisuke had gone from the GT500 to win, first the Japanese Rallying title and then, racing with an international team, he'd won several trophies in both rallies and touring car races.

Takahashi Keisuke had definitely made it big in the racing industry and Takumi couldn't help but to feel slightly jealous of him. But, like he'd already decided, it was too late for this kind of regrets. He had to look ahead now and, in front of him he could only see Akito. Takumi would fight so his son could make his dreams come true.

If Akito's dreams had anything to do with racing and the Takahashi could help him achieve his targets, Takumi was prepared to accept the Takahashi's help once again.

'Wow!' he heard Akito exclaim glued to one of the two huge displays that ran along the corridor inside the building.

'What is it Akito?' Takumi said walking towards his son.

'That's you, isn't it?' Akito asked pointing at a framed picture that was behind the glass. Takumi looked at it and saw that it was the very first picture the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had had taken. It was from the day when they had got their uniforms and racing suits, the day their FD3S had received the number 86, a number the team would keep until they dissolved at the end of that tragic GT500 season.

'Yeah, it's me,' Takumi said fighting to keep his voice stable. Seeing all the happy, much younger faces staring at him from the picture had moved him a lot more than he'd expected.

'Wow, how old were you in that picture?' his son asked, completely oblivious of his father's inner turmoil.

'Twenty one,' Takumi replied and his son gasped again, 'what's up now?' Takumi asked.

'That…that's Mum, isn't it?' Akito asked now pointing at a different picture, the one from the beginning of their last GT500 season, just a few months before Minami's death.

Takumi heard Keisuke taking a sharp intake of breath.

'Yes Akito, that's your mother,' Takumi said and, for some reason, the faint ache he normally felt was a bit weaker than usual.

'Guys, I've got an idea,' Keisuke said suddenly and speaking to his nephews, 'why don't you two show Akito around the school so his father and I can talk…'

'Yeah, this way we can have a rematch,' Seisuke said talking to Akito.

'Er…Seisuke, if I were you, I'd forget about the rematch,' Keisuke said frowning at his nephew.

'Why? Do you think I can lose again?' Seisuke asked looking at his uncle as if he'd just said something ridiculously impossible.

Keisuke looked at Takumi and, with a smirk, he said:

'Judging by personal experience, I'd say yes…'

Takumi had to make an effort not to start laughing seeing poor Seisuke's face.

'Come this way,' Kyosuke said talking to Akito, saving what was left of his younger brother's dignity in the process.

'Try to stay out of trouble,' Takumi said to his son.

'Can't promise you that,' Akito said cheekily before following the two Takahashi brothers.

'He's a bit of a handful, isn't he?' Keisuke asked Takumi once the two adults were left by themselves.

'You have no idea,' Takumi said nodding.

'That's why I'm so happy now that I had a little girl,' Keisuke said smiling.

'You didn't say that when you first found out,' Takumi said and, for an instant, the two men looked at each other both feeling as though as time had taken a leap backwards.

'This way,' Keisuke said after a short but very uncomfortable silence.

Takumi followed Keisuke to his office, a simply but elegantly furnished room, where on one of the walls, Keisuke had all his trophies on display.

'The most important ones are here,' he said pointing at two cups that were on top of some sort of wooden podium. Looking at them, Takumi saw that they were the two GT300 and GT500 championship cups that the Kirin Takahashi Racing team had won.

'I'm very impressed,' Takumi said looking around the office, ignoring the way Keisuke was looking at him.

'Yeah, well, I had to do something so this prefecture could do something for those like us who want to have a future in racing,' Keisuke explained.

'So, you've founded a school,' Takumi said taking a seat near Keisuke's desk while the older man just leant against it facing Takumi.

'Yeah, it was Kyoko's idea, Aniki and I just financed it,' Keisuke explained, 'the thing is, she said that in order to make racing safer for kids was to take them out of the streets and teach them to drive like a professional racer in a controlled environment.'

'You're against street racing now?' Takumi asked raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'No! Absolutely not,' Keisuke said shaking his head rather vigorously, 'I just think that, by removing the amateurs from the roads, we can keep them free for those who can drive seriously well…'

'Ah, I see,' Takumi said.

'Yeah, also, we have space here for those who are still too young to drive legally but that want to start driving nonetheless,' Keisuke said.

'Like my son,' Takumi added.

'Exactly,' Keisuke replied.

'So, what do you want from him?' Takumi asked deciding to go straight to the point.

'Well, if you agree, I'd like for you to take him here whenever you can, so he can drive the karts and hone his skills while he's still young. Once he'll be a bit older, we also have regular cars, just slightly modified, so he'll be able to learn the different driving techniques even before he'll get his driving license…'

'He can do that too by driving down Mt Akina,' Takumi commented.

'Yeah, but here he can do it legally and, on top of that, he'll have good instructors who'll correct his mistakes without having to risk his life like you did,' Keisuke countered.

'I don't know, I found my father's method to be a really good one,' Takumi said.

'I'm not saying your father's method was bad, it's just that what we do here is a bit more, how can I put it…orthodox,' Keisuke said.

Takumi laughed softly making Keisuke look at him inquisitively.

'You remind me a lot of your older brother,' Takumi commented and Keisuke looked startled for a second.

'Thanks, I can only take that as a huge compliment,' Keisuke said with a wide smile.

'How's he doing these days?' Takumi asked.

'He's great. Both he and Akiko are now managing most of the hospital's affairs. Dad's actually gone on holidays this year with Mum, it's the first time they go away on a trip that has nothing to do with business since their honeymoon,' Keisuke said.

'And what about your wife and daughter? Her name was Ryoko, wasn't it?'

'Yeah, Kyoko works here with me, she's one of our best instructors. Ryoko's as beautiful as I feared she'd be and, thankfully, she's still not too fascinated by cars.'

'Thankfully?' Takumi asked looking confused for he'd thought Keisuke couldn't wait to teach his precious girl all the techniques he'd mastered throughout his years as a professional driver.

'Yeah, she's into ice skating,' Keisuke explained looking so happy that Takumi couldn't repress a chuckle.

'That was surely a surprise for you, wasn't it?'

'Yeah, especially for Kyoko, to think that she was worried I'd discriminate my daughter when it came to teach her to drive and now, she's not even interested!' Keisuke said laughing softly.

'Maybe she'll change her mind when she'll grow up. She's not much older than Akito, is she?'

'No, she was only just over a month old when…well, when Akito was born,' Keisuke said realising just in time what he had been about to say.

'Er…I think I better get going then,' Takumi said being his turn to break the uncomfortable silence that had, once again formed between the two men.

'Already? Don't you want to see the Centre?' Keisuke said frowning.

'I really should go,' Takumi said.

'Please, it'll just take a few more minutes, besides you haven't given me your answer yet,' Keisuke said.

'I'll think about it,' Takumi said.

'Fair enough,' Keisuke said then, getting up from his desk, he said, 'let's go and find the boys.'

Takumi just nodded and followed Keisuke out of his office and, after exiting the building, they found all three boys kneeling by one of the karts with Kyosuke busy explaining to Akito about the different mechanical parts of the vehicle. Keisuke and Takumi were almost sorry to interrupt him for it really looked hilarious to see them like that.

'They remind me of us when we first met and Aniki gave us his lectures,' Keisuke commented looking at the three boys fondly.

'Yeah, well, they're a lot younger than we were back then,' Takumi said.

'Yeah, if we accomplished so much starting so late, imagine what these three can do together with so much time in their hands,' Keisuke said making Takumi think that the whole thing's sole target was just to do that: form some sort of Project D, junior version.

'Dad!' Akito said seeing his father walk towards him.

'Having fun, kiddo?' Takumi asked tousling his son's hair.

'Yep, listen, Kyosuke and Seisuke have told me that they're having a family barbeque for Children's Day and they've asked me if we'd like to join them.'

'Akito…' Takumi started.

'That's a fantastic idea,' Keisuke said and both of his nephews were happy to see that their adored uncle agreed with them.

'Please, Daddy,' Akito said with the cute little face that reminded Takumi so much of when Minami used her emotional blackmail to get her way with him, a tactic that, by the way, always worked.

'Won't we be a bother?' Takumi said talking to Keisuke who immediately shook his head.

'Absolutely not, Aniki and the rest of the family will be very happy to see you Takumi and, of course, they'll be thrilled to see the lad you've become,' Keisuke said looking at Akito.

Takumi looked at Keisuke, then he turned his gaze to his son and, giving in, he said:

'Alright, we'll need to call Grandpa.'

'You still live with your father?' Keisuke asked Takumi.

'Yes, I do,' Takumi said a bit too defensively.

'Ah, alright,' Keisuke said almost apologetically then, talking to his nephews, he said, 'put those karts back in the garage and get ready. If we're late for lunch your mum will kill me…'

Soon enough, Takumi found himself driving with his son towards the Takahashi residence following Keisuke's brand new yellow Mazda SE3P R3 Version. Apparently, and as Keisuke himself had explained to him, the legendary FD was carefully kept at their garage for special exhibitions and, for whenever Keisuke felt like going up and down Mt Akagi.

'I can't believe you're still driving the AE86,' he said as they parked in front of the house's garage.

'Yeah, it's still running pretty well for a car that's over twenty years old,' Takumi said patting the Toyota's bonnet.

'I bet it is, that has never been a normal car,' Keisuke said as he started walking towards Ryosuke's house's entrance. Takumi looked at the house noticing that it hadn't changed at all, except for the fact that it was now connected to the house next door.

'We built the connection so we could go from one house to the other without going outside,' Keisuke explained seeing where Takumi was looking at.

'Ah, I see,' and Takumi didn't have time to add anything else for, at this precise moment, the house's main door opened to reveal a slightly older looking Ryosuke.

'Aniki, I brought with me two surprises,' Keisuke said happily.

Ryosuke looked at Takumi and, predictably enough, did a double take.

'Takumi, I can't believe it!' he exclaimed marvelled to see his former driver standing at his doorstep, then, looking a bit further down, he said, 'and you must be Akito-kun.'

Akito nodded with his eyes open as wide as they went and Takumi could tell that he was as much in awe seeing Ryosuke as he'd been himself the first time he'd met with Akagi's White Comet.

'Wow, Keisuke, this is a surprise,' Ryosuke said and he could not have looked any more pleased.

'Dad, I'm going to teach Akito-kun about mechanics,' Kyosuke announced talking to his father.

'Are you?' Ryosuke asked his son looking amused.

'Yep,' Kyosuke said.

'And what are you going to teach him?' Ryosuke asked his other son who was unusually quiet.

'Er…I'm hungry, is lunch ready yet?' Seisuke asked and then he ran into the house.

'He got beaten by Akito-kun with the karts,' Keisuke explained to his older brother as the three adults entered the house followed by Akito and Kyosuke.

'Really?' Ryosuke asked laughing softly, 'are you already that good?' he asked talking to Akito.

'Seisuke was caught unprepared,' Kyosuke said defending his younger brother making his father stop and turn to his son.

'Kyosuke, what do I always say?'

The boy looked at his father before looking down at the floor.

'A good racer is always ready for a challenger,' Kyosuke recited with the tone of someone who's been lectured many times on the subject.

'Exactly,' Ryosuke said patting his son's shoulder.

'Takumi! It really is you! I thought Seisuke was joking!' Kyoko said running towards Takumi and, after hugging him, she turned to Akito and, after looking at him for a bit, she hugged him too.

'You're just as good looking as I knew you'd be!' Kyoko said pinching Akito's cheek in a way that made even Takumi feel rather embarrassed.

'Hello Takumi,' Akiko said with her usual, kind smile that Takumi remembered so well. Behind her, he saw a very pretty little girl.

'Come on Ryoko, don't be shy,' Kyoko said talking to her daughter, 'This is Fujiwara Takumi, a very good friend of ours and this boy is his son Akito. He's more or less your age, you know?' she said as the girl finally got out from behind her aunt.

'Hello,' she said and her timid expression only made her look cuter.

'Hello Ryoko-chan,' Takumi said waving at the little girl with his hand. He then looked at Akito who looked completely mesmerised, 'hey, don't be rude, say something…' he said to his son.

'Er…hi,' he said in a completely uncharacteristic shy tone of voice.

'Shall we all go to the garden?' Akiko then suggested breaking the awkward moment and, while everybody followed Ryosuke's wife, Takumi found himself hoping that he had got it wrong for it looked to him like his son was having his first crush ever.

On Keisuke's daughter, no less.

_To be continued…_


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Eighteen_

During the drive back to Shibukawa, both Takumi and Akito remained in complete silence. The father was thinking of how very strange it had been to be back at the Takahashi, lunching with them as though as the past five and a half years had never happened.

Granted, there had been quite a few things that made him realise that those years had gone by. One, the fact that they all looked slightly older, making Takumi wonder if he looked that much older too. Another one was the fact that Minami wasn't there with him, unlike the last time he'd been invited to a Takahashi family barbeque.

But the most significant difference were the four kids that were sitting with them. Seeing Kyosuke and Seisuke so grown up had been quite a shock for Takumi because the last time he'd seen both kids, they had been little more than toddlers. Ryoko had also been a surprise, the little girl seemed to have grown under her aunt's influence and she was almost as calm and poised as Ryosuke's wife. With a smile, Takumi wondered if the girl had also acquired Akiko's temper.

Thinking of the little girl made Takumi look at his son and say:

'Did you have fun?'

'Yeah, Kyosuke is really cool!' Akito said enthusiastically and Takumi wasn't surprised that the oldest son of Ryosuke Takahashi would cause such a good impression on his son.

'What about Seisuke and Ryoko?' Takumi asked.

'Seisuke's nuts, but he's a lot of fun,' Akito said and Takumi laughed softly noticing the way his son had clearly avoided talking about Keisuke's daughter.

'Dad,' Akito said after a bit, 'you will let me join the karting school, won't you?'

Takumi looked at his son again then, returning his gaze to the road, he thought about it for a bit and then, he said:

'You really would like that, wouldn't you?'

'Duh! Who wouldn't?' Akito exclaimed.

'Just tell me one thing Akito,' Takumi said.

'Yeah?'

'Why do you like driving karts so much?' Takumi asked and his son frowned as if he was trying to put in words what he felt when driving those small but very fast vehicles.

Finally, after several minutes, he said:

'They make me feel something funny but nice, just here,' he said pointing at somewhere in the middle of his chest.

Takumi took a deep breath then, slowly, he nodded.

'Yeah, that's exactly how I feel when I drive as fast as I can,' Takumi said then, looking again at his son, he said, 'alright then, you can join the school.'

'Really?' Akito said almost jumping on his seat.

'Yep, but promise something to me,' Takumi said.

'Anything,' Akito said happily.

'Keep driving only for as long as you're enjoying it. If it gets too much, tell me, alright?'

'I promise you, Dad,' Akito said solemnly.

Takumi nodded and then he said:

'Another thing, you'll be starting school, you know, proper school, next year. I don't want your grades to suffer just because you'll be spending most of your free time at the Takahashi's karting school. Okay?'

'Ah…yeah, sure,' Akito replied and Takumi smiled again for his son had not sounded anywhere near as convincing as he'd tried to be.

'This reminds me, we'll have to pick the school you'll go to pretty soon.'

'But Dad, I won't be starting till next April, that's ages away.'

'Only ten months, Akito, and we have to pick the school so we can go to the meetings, buy your school bag and the rest of the stuff,' Takumi said.

'Alright, I don't really care all that much,' Akito said.

'You could go to the same school I went to,' Takumi suggested.

'Yeah, okay,' Akito agreed.

With this, father and son had settled the whole matter.

Ten days later, in a really warm day of mid May, Takumi and Akito drove back to the Takahashi's motor sports centre for Akito's first day of karting school.

'Hey, you convinced your father, didn't you?' Kyosuke said patting the smaller boy's shoulder.

'Yeah,' Akito said happily.

'Then, come this way, I'll introduce you to the rest of the class,' Kyosuke said and both Akito and Kyosuke's younger brother Seisuke followed the older boy towards a group of kids that were paying their utmost attention to what Kyoko, their instructor for that lesson, was telling them.

'Hi!' Kyoko mouthed seeing Takumi there. He just waved at her.

'I'm glad you made this decision,' Takumi heard a voice say coming from somewhere behind him. He turned round and saw the youngest of the Rotary Brothers walking towards him.

'Yeah, Akito would have not forgiven me if I had said no,' Takumi explained.

'Well, while you're here, why don't you take one of our cars for a spin around the circuit?' Keisuke said pointing at the large race track placed immediately next to the smaller karting circuit.

'No, thanks, I've got to go anyway,' Takumi said shaking his head.

'Ah, I thought you'd stay to watch your son's driving,' Keisuke said frowning.

'Yeah, I'll just see a couple of laps and then I'll go. I've got to get the forms to enrol him at the elementary school he'll attend next year,' Takumi explained.

'Ah, yeah, Kyoko and I did the same for Ryoko a few days ago, she's going to go to the same school her cousins attend. Which school is Akito going to go to?' Keisuke asked.

'My old one,' Takumi replied.

'That's not a private one, is it?'

'Nope, it's a state-run one, Dad couldn't afford a private one when I was a kid,' Takumi explained.

'But you can now, can't you?' Keisuke said.

'Yeah, but Akito's not that bothered so I'll just send him there,' Takumi said.

'Fair enough,' Keisuke replied and, after that, the two adults remained silent while watching as some of the kids, Akito included, boarded the karts and started driving around the circuit.

Takumi had to admit it: his son really had a good rhythm and he was definitely not afraid of the speed, not even when the other karts surrounding him went even faster than him. He just seemed to have loads of fun trying to outclass them and, in fact, there were a couple of occasions when Takumi heard his kid's loud laughter as he managed to overtake one of his classmates.

After a short time watching his son's evolutions, Takumi announced that he was leaving and then, he walked back to his car to drive back to Shibukawa and to the school where he'd spent the first years of his youth.

Meanwhile, and as he observed his former team mate walking away from him, Keisuke took his phone out of the pocket and dialled his brother's number.

'Ryosuke here.'

'Aniki, it's me. The plan's not working,' Keisuke said.

'Be patient, it's just the first day, isn't it?'

'Yeah but he wasn't even interested in the cars we have here, not even remotely,' Keisuke said.

'Keisuke, we've waited for over five years so we had a good enough excuse for him to come to us. Let's not ruin it all revealing our true intentions before he's ready.'

'What if he's never ready?'

'He will be. He's come to us, hasn't he?'

'Yeah, he has,' Keisuke agreed.

'Well, if we play it nicely, he'll start getting interested in cars once more,' Ryosuke said.

'If you say so.'

'Keisuke, Takumi's been locked up in himself for a long time, now we just have to take it very slow so he opens up again. I know Takumi and I know he misses racing.'

'Almost as much as you do?' Keisuke asked his brother cheekily.

'Yeah, almost,' Ryosuke admitted shocking Keisuke in the process, 'which is why I think we can succeed: we'll get him interested in racing again and, after that, it'll be just a matter of time before we get him back behind the wheel.'

'Yeah, and by that time, the car we're preparing will be more than ready, won't it?'

'Precisely. Keisuke, be patient, alright?'

'I will be Aniki, I will be,' Keisuke said.

'Ah, how is Akito-kun? He's there now, isn't he?' Ryosuke asked.

'He's every bit as amazing as his old man, to think he's the youngest in his class,' Keisuke replied as he observed the boy driving his kart as though as he'd done nothing else in his whole life. Ryosuke laughed softly before saying:

'Well, if the worse comes to worst, at least we'll have a back up…who knows, maybe Fujiwara Akito will become our next national motorsports hero,' Ryosuke said.

'Hey, what about your sons?' Keisuke asked.

'They'll be there too, of course. Just as we were,' Ryosuke said.

'That'd be fantastic,' Keisuke said dreamily.

'I've got to go now, Akiko's waiting for me to start our board of investors meeting, I'll see you back home…'

'Sure Aniki, later,' Keisuke said hanging up.

He then headed back to his office as a certain AE86 was entering Shibukawa's Public Elementary School's car park.

Takumi climbed out of his car and after locking it, he walked towards the school's main building where he remembered the offices were. Entering the hall, he made his way to the reception area where a pretty girl, probably ten years younger than him, was busy sorting out some documents.

'Good afternoon sir, how may I help you?' she said with a pleasant voice.

Takumi repressed a snigger, it was quite hilarious to be addressed as sir in his own former school.

'I'd like to pick up the forms to enrol my son,' he said.

'Is this for this academic year or the next?' the receptionist asked.

'The next one,' he said.

'Ah, I'll go and get them for you, just give me a second, sir,' she said and, getting up from her chair, she went into the room she had at her back.

'Takumi?' he heard a very familiar voice say from behind him.

He turned round and said:

'Mogi? What are you doing here?'

'I work here, remember? I did tell you I worked as an elementary school teacher,' Natsuki said and Takumi could tell that she wasn't entirely happy to see him there.

Then he remembered that he'd agreed to think about going out for lunch with her…and he'd never called her back after that.

'Yeah, I remember,' he just said.

'What about you? Getting some extra lessons?' Natsuki said half jokingly, half sarcastically.

'Do you think I need them?' Takumi said hoping he sounded casual too, laughing as he saw Natsuki's not so sure expression then, she started laughing too.

'I'm here to enrol Akito for next year,' Takumi explained as the two stopped laughing.

'Ah, really? I'm in charge of the first years, maybe he'll be in my class,' she said.

'Wow, that'd be weird,' Takumi commented.

'Why?' she asked defensively.

'No, I…well, it's just…'

'Takumi, I take my job very seriously. I wouldn't let anything influence me when I teach my students, no matter who they, or their parents, are,' Natsuki said looking very serious.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to.'

'Forget it,' Natsuki said trying to smile back at him.

Takumi was spared by the arrival of the receptionist who carried a folder with her.

'Mogi-sensei, do you know this gentleman?' the receptionist asked.

'Yes, he was…we went to this school together,' Natsuki explained.

'Ah, is that so?' the receptionist asked and Takumi found himself just nodding while he looked at Natsuki.

'Well, I better go, I've got a lesson starting in five minutes,' Natsuki said.

'Yeah, I've got to go too, got to go to Maebashi to pick Akito up,' Takumi said, horribly conscious of the fact that the receptionist was staring at them with an almost indecent amount of curiosity.

'Alright, I'll see you next week then,' Natsuki said making Takumi turn sharply to look at her.

'Next week?' he asked alarmed.

'It's the first meeting for the students who will arrive next year,' she explained using every bit of the patience her school teacher's job required.

'Ah, I see.'

'Oh, Takumi, you…' Natsuki said looking almost desperate before shaking her head and turn round.

Takumi observed her as she walked away from both he and the receptionist and, as he walked back to his car with the folder containing all the forms he needed, he had an unpleasant feeling like if, somehow, he'd just done something really stupid.

_To be continued…_


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Nineteen_

Thursday evening, all three Fujiwara were enjoying the food Bunta had brought from one of his visits to his good friend Daichi, the owner of a nearby sushi restaurant, when all of a sudden and without anything that may have provoked the question, Akito stopped eating and getting unusually serious, he said:

'Dad, can I ask you something?'

'Sure you can, what's up?' Takumi said while trying to decide which piece of sushi to eat next, finally deciding for a tasty looking piece of salmon.

'Why don't I have a mother?'

That made Takumi drop his sushi while Bunta chocked himself with the beer he'd been drinking. Takumi looked at his father wide eyed and hoping that the old man would come to the rescue.

'Er…Akito…' Takumi started seeing that his father had decided, very conveniently, to let him handle the whole thing on his own, 'you know your mother is…'

'Oh, I know Mum is dead, it's just that Soichiro-kun said…'

'Who's Soichiro?' Takumi asked.

'One of the boys from the karting school,' Akito explained before continuing, 'so, Soichiro-kun's Mum diversed, no, er…'

'Divorced?' Takumi supplied.

'Yeah, his Mum divorced his Dad a few years ago but his father's got a new wife so Soichiro-kun now has a new Mum. This has made me wonder why is it that that you didn't get a new wife when Mum died.'

Takumi and Bunta were so shocked hearing this that it took Takumi several minutes to be able to come up with a coherent reply to what his son had just said.

'Akito, wouldn't you mind if I got a new wife?' he finally managed to ask.

'Why would I mind?' Akito asked clearly unable to see his father's point.

'Well, it's just that, I would think that, maybe…I don't know…' Takumi said.

'What your father wants to ask you is if you wouldn't mind if someone took your mother's place,' Bunta said finally deciding to help his son out.

Akito looked at both adults and, shaking his head, he said:

'I've never known my Mum so, how can I mind if someone else does her job?'

Bunta just nodded to the completely flawless reasoning his grandson had just presented them with. Takumi couldn't even bring himself to say nor do anything else than stare at his son, wondering how in the hell had this kid of his got so smart. It had to be in Minami's genes, because he surely was not quite as sharp as that.

'Why don't you go out again with that girl you knew from high school?' Akito suddenly asked.

'What? How in the heck did you…'

'I heard Aunt Mariko talk about it with Uncle Itsuki,' Akito said and Takumi made himself a mental note to ask his best friend to watch what he and his wife talked about in front of the kid.

'Are you talking about that Natsuki girl? Wasn't she in Tokyo?' Bunta asked his son.

'Yes, she was, she's just moved back here,' Takumi explained then, getting slightly desperate, he said, 'why don't we talk about something else?'

'Is she still single?' Bunta said ignoring his son in the most absolute way possible.

'Yes Dad, she is but, enough with this…'

'You know Akito,' Bunta continued now talking to his grandson, 'I don't think it'd be such a bad idea if your dad went out with Natsuki again, from what I remember, she was very pretty.'

'Yeah, she looks nice,' Akito replied nodding in an almost adult way.

'Hey! You two: I said enough with this!' Takumi exclaimed now getting seriously pissed off.

Akito and Bunta looked at him, then at each other and, as though as they had decided to do so together, they let out a chuckle making Takumi get up and say:

'I'm going to my room.'

'What about the sushi I brought?' Bunta said still looking indecently amused.

'I'm not hungry anymore,' Takumi said and, as he left the room, he heard his father say:

'Great, more for us, eh, Akito?'

'Yep!' the kid exclaimed happily.

It was rather scary how well those two got along, Takumi thought as he laid down on his bed covering his forehead with his hand.

A few hours later, he got up realising that he had fallen asleep on top of his bed and with all of his clothes on. Leaving his room, he went downstairs and into the shop to see his father already preparing the tofu for the morning delivery.

'Hey, you're finally up,' Bunta said seeing his son entering his working area.

'Yeah, why didn't you wake me up so I could get Akito to bed?'

'You were sleeping so soundly that Akito and I decided to let you sleep. We had the bath together and I got him to bed myself,' Bunta said.

'Ah, well, thanks.'

'Don't mention it,' Bunta said while he cut up a large portion of tofu.

'Do you need a hand?' Takumi asked.

'Nope, thanks. Just get the boxes ready,' Bunta said and, as Takumi went to do that, he heard his father say, 'Akito's right you know?'

'About what?' Takumi asked and, seeing that his father stopped doing what he was doing made Takumi stop too.

'Look, I'm not going to tell you what to do with your life. I've never done it, I'm not going to start now but, maybe you should consider if you can be happier than now.'

'Is this about Mogi Natsuki again?' Takumi said frowning at his father.

'Son, for most of us, finding a woman to share our lives with is hard enough, to find another one after losing that first one, it's nothing short of a miracle.'

'You didn't try to find another woman after Mum died,' Takumi said.

'That's because I couldn't find another woman as special as she was,' Bunta said shocking Takumi with this sudden, atypical burst of honesty.

'Dad…'

'Look, I don't know what happened between Natsuki-chan and you but I could tell that she really loved you and, now she's back, right when neither of you have anyone special in your lives.'

'So? It doesn't mean that…'

'Son, why don't you ask her out, find out if you two still have something going on.'

'Dad…'

'Just think about it, alright?' Bunta said, 'Besides, you even have your son's approval and that's the hardest thing to get.'

'Okay, I'll think about it,' Takumi said hoping his father would stop being so interfering. Would people ever stop trying to decide what was better for him? Takumi thought bitterly as he took the boxes out to get them washed.

The next day, as he'd done every afternoon ever since Akito had joined the karting school, Takumi found himself driving to Maebashi to go and pick his son up from the three hour long karting session.

As usual, he parked the AE86 and started walking towards the small kart circuit then, as he got near it, he saw a circle of children with two of them in the middle of it, clearly engaged in a fight. Looking closely and with dismay, he realised that one of the kids who were fighting was his own son Akito. This made him run towards the group of children getting ready to stop the fight.

'AKITO!' he shouted as he got there.

The boy, hearing his father's angry voice stopped fighting.

'What in the heck are you doing?' Takumi said grabbing his kid's arm while he crouched next to him so he could be at eye level.

'I…he started it!' his son said pointing angrily at the other kid, a boy who looked much older than Akito.

'It's true,' Kyosuke said coming closer to both father and son followed by his younger brother, 'he's been teasing Akito during the whole afternoon.'

'Where's your aunt?' Takumi asked Ryosuke's oldest son.

'She left us in charge to finish tidying up and as soon as we were left alone, he started pushing and insulting Akito.'

The kid in question looked at Takumi defiantly and, without an ounce of respect, he said:

'You're his father?'

'Yes, I am,' Takumi said getting up.

'Ha! You don't look all that great,' the kid said making both Takahashi brothers join Akito to get in between the kid and Takumi as though as they were defending him. Takumi could not feel any more ridiculous having three children shielding him from another one.

'Look, I don't know who you are…'

'He's Iwaki Makoto,' Seisuke supplied.

'Are you related to Iwaki Seiji?' Takumi asked recognising the surname almost instantly.

'Yeah, he's my Dad, and I told your son that my Dad can beat you whenever he wants,' the kid said and now Takumi recognised in that kid his father's reckless arrogance.

'Yeah, in your dreams!' Akito exclaimed before Takumi could say anything.

'I've already told you: Akito's father beat the pants off your dad when they were younger,' Kyosuke said talking to this Makoto kid rather disdainfully.

'Yeah, so did our Uncle Keisuke,' Seisuke added.

'What's going on in here?' they all heard Keisuke himself ask making Takumi turn round to see his former team mate walking towards them.

'Er…' Takumi started but Kyosuke was faster than him and the kid proceeded to explain everything to his uncle.

'Is that so?' Keisuke asked hearing his nephew's account of the whole incident, 'Makoto-kun, do you know that your father wouldn't be happy if you issued challenges in his place?'

Makoto seemed to have lost his ability to speak in front of Keisuke and Takumi realised the huge amount of charisma the man seemed to have with the students.

'You're not so brave now, are you?' Akito said with his own courage fuelled by the presence of both his father and Keisuke.

'I…'

'I think you should all finish tidying up so you can go home,' Keisuke suggested and, predictably, every single one of the kids there obeyed instantly. Only Akito and the two Takahashi brothers stayed there with the two adults.

'Sorry, I wasn't happy to accept him in the school but Iwaki asked me to teach him as a favour,' Keisuke explained.

'It's alright,' Takumi said.

'You know, this has given me an idea,' Keisuke said all of the sudden.

'What?' Takumi was almost afraid of asking.

'Well, there hasn't been a good challenge in here for quite a while…'

'No,' Takumi instantly said.

'Hey, I still haven't said anything,' Keisuke said putting his hands up while smiling in a way that didn't make Takumi feel any better.

'Keisuke, I know you well enough to know that you're up to something,' Takumi said.

'Just hear me out, okay?' Keisuke asked.

'Alright, what is it?' Takumi said, finally giving in, knowing he really had no alternative.

'Alright, I know that if I asked you to help me with a project that had anything to do with racing, you'd probably say no, am I right?' Keisuke started.

'Yes, you are right,' Takumi said liking this whole thing less and less the more Keisuke spoke.

'So, imagine that I made this bet with you…'

'Keisuke, I'm not racing,' Takumi said just before Keisuke could continue, 'I'm too rusty for that anyway.'

'Hey, let me finish,' Keisuke protested.

'Yeah Dad, let him finish,' Akito said and Takumi realised that all three kids were listening intently to the whole conversation.

'Alright, go on.'

'Okay, you say you're rusty but I don't think so. So, I'll make this bet with you: we race, if I win, then I'll accept that you're indeed rusty and you'll be free to do whatever you want. However, if you win, then you'll have to help me with this project of mine.'

'This doesn't make any sense: I can easily let you win so I'm free to do what I want,' Takumi said.

'I don't think so,' Keisuke said shaking his head.

'Why not?'

'Takumi, I think I know you well enough to know that you couldn't do that.'

'And why is that?' Takumi asked with a smirk.

'Because you're too much like me: your competitive nature would kick in and wouldn't allow you to let me win.'

Takumi's smirk disappeared as he damned Keisuke for knowing him so well.

'So, what do you say?' Keisuke insisted.

Takumi looked at him and then at the three boys who stared at the two adults expectantly.

'Dad, I'd love to see you race,' Akito said pleadingly.

That did it for Takumi who, finding himself without any other options, was forced to say:

'Alright, let's race.'

'Yeepie!' Akito said and was joined in the cheering by the two older boys who were extremely happy to see their uncle back in action.

'Okay, how does this sound: my old FD, your AE86, here, next Saturday at ten pm. This way you have a whole week to prepare your car,' Keisuke suggested.

'Alright,' Takumi said completely unaware that he had just fallen into a very carefully prepared trap.

_To be continued..._


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Twenty_

Father and son entered the Fujiwara Tofu Shop to find Bunta there serving two customers. Seeing that, Takumi and Akito decided to wait for him in the living room so they could tell him what had just happened back at the karting school.

'So, you'll be racing the AE86 on a track?' Bunta asked his son after he had explained to him the terms of his bet with Keisuke.

'Yes, do you think the car can cope with that?' Takumi asked.

'Son, that car can cope with anything, the question here is: can you?' Bunta replied.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that I'll take care of the car so it's ready, meanwhile, I want you to prepare yourself both physically and psychologically for the race,' Bunta said in what looked more like an order.

'It's just a race,' Takumi said.

'Son, you haven't raced anyone in over five and a half years and, except in Mt Akina, and you can drive that with your eyes closed and your hand taped to the wheel, you haven't driven anywhere else. You should get yourself ready for the challenge properly.'

'Dad, do you realise that if I win, I'll have to help Keisuke with his project?' Takumi said suspecting that maybe his father hadn't understood his explanation very well.

'Yeah, and if you lose you'll never forgive yourself,' Bunta said and Takumi knew instantly that it was true: he really wanted to win!

'Alright, fair enough. Will you need a hand with the car?' Takumi said and the way Bunta looked at him was a good enough answer, 'fine, alright,' Takumi mumbled.

'I can't wait to see you race, Dad,' Akito said excitedly making Takumi even more determined to do his best.

The following Wednesday, and since Bunta had taken the AE86 for a spin, meaning he was doing everything in his power to make the car run even faster and more smoothly, Takumi and his son drove to the Shibukawa Elementary School in the GC8.

There he found a whole lot of other kids with their parents waiting for the teachers and the principal of the school to join them so they could start the meeting. With a pang, Takumi realised that Akito was the only kid in the entire room with only one parent there, the rest of them all had both parents with them. Takumi was hoping Akito wouldn't notice that difference too much when he saw the teachers coming into the meeting room, Mogi Natsuki, of course, was among them.

She saw him and Takumi was going to wave at her but then, seeing she wasn't doing the same, made him think that maybe it wasn't appropriate to let everyone else know that they were acquainted so, Takumi decided to wait till the end of the meeting to go and speak to her.

If Takumi had paid any attention to the meeting, he would have heard a boring list of things that were allowed, things that weren't, the name and subject of every one of the teachers and the whole programme of festivals and events organised by the school.

Instead, Takumi was busy trying to come up with a way to ask Natsuki if she was still interested in going for that lunch with him for, in the past few days he'd decided to give to their non-relationship another chance.

With a bit of luck, they would find out that they had changed too much and they would realise that any relationship they might have wanted to start was doomed to failure. This way Takumi could go to his father, and everyone else who kept trying to pry into his private affairs, and tell them that they were wrong. In any case, he no longer hated Natsuki in any way so maybe they would have fun.

Takumi barely noticed that the principal had left the room after greeting all the new students and their parents and, as he followed the mass of people outside the room, he noticed that Natsuki was walking away from them, probably back to the teachers' room.

'Akito, wait here for me. Please, do not move, do you understand?' Takumi asked his son.

'Sure,' Akito said.

Then Takumi ran towards Natsuki hoping no one would spot him as he did so.

'Mogi, wait…'

'What is it?' she asked looking around herself as if trying to see if there was any of her colleagues or worse, parents anywhere nearby.

'Er…' Takumi started, suddenly feeling a lot less brave than earlier, 'that lunch thing, are you still interested?'

Natsuki opened her eyes as wide as they went and, after recovering from the surprise, she nodded slowly.

'Ah, okay, are you free this Sunday?'

'Yes,' she said with a tiny voice.

'Alright, I'll pick you up at, er…the bottom of the stairs that lead to the temple?' Takumi suggested since he didn't know where Natsuki's apartment was.

'Fine, let's make it at noon?' Natsuki said obviously trying to contain her extreme happiness making Takumi frown.

'Yeah, twelve sounds good. See you there.'

With that, Takumi left her there noticing the way she bobbed happily back to the teachers' room. Women were definitely weird creatures, Takumi thought as he walked back to his son who, for once, had done what he had been told.

'You asked her out?' Akito asked his father the minute Takumi reached him.

'That's none of your business,' Takumi said.

'You did. Cool!' Akito exclaimed happily making Takumi shake his head. Bloody kid!

Saturday evening arrived a lot faster than he'd believed possible and, just after dinner, he and his father found themselves driving with both the AE86 and the GC8 all the way to the Takahashi Motorsports Centre.

He was shocked to see that his father wanted to go and watch him race but, again, Bunta had told him that he was only coming so if he crashed the Toyota, they would still have the Subaru to go back home.

Crash the AE86! As if, Takumi thought to himself.

'Are you nervous?' Akito said from the passenger seat.

'Nope,' Takumi said and he was being honest for he really wasn't nervous at all. He was very excited, and eager to start the race but not nervous nor afraid.

He'd done a good job preparing himself for this race, Takumi thought as he remembered the running sessions to build up his stamina and the time he'd spent driving up and down Mt. Akina trying to get back in his head the illusion that he was racing his father's GC8.

When they arrived there, he found a surprise that he didn't really know if it was a pleasant one or not: there, sitting at the small grandstand placed next to the circuit's straight, he found all three former Lonely Drivers plus the women who had made them a bit less lonely.

Also, the whole Takahashi family was there, including little Ryoko, to Akito's immense delight.

'I'm going to say hi to Kyosuke and Seisuke,' Akito said as he ran to where the two boys were with their cousin.

'Hi there,' Keisuke said coming towards Takumi and Bunta.

'Hi,' Takumi said then he noticed that Keisuke looked at Bunta and, after frowning, he bowed very deeply in front of the old man and said, with his most serious voice:

'Fujiwara-san, please accept my apologies for what I said to you the last time we spoke.'

Bunta looked at him and, for a second, the old man looked slightly embarrassed.

'It's okay, it's okay,' Bunta said making Keisuke stand back up.

'I…I don't know why I…'

'Hey, I said it's okay, didn't I?' Bunta said beginning to get annoyed.

'Yes, sorry,' Keisuke said and was saved by the arrival of Ryosuke, his wife Akiko and Keisuke's wife Kyoko.

'Hello Fujiwara-san,' Ryosuke said bowing a bit while Bunta just nodded at him.

'Er…I'll go and say hi to the guys,' Takumi said walking towards the grandstand.

'This whole asking Akito to join the karting school thing,' Bunta said speaking to Ryosuke, 'was all a strategy to get my son back into the racing world, wasn't it?'

Ryosuke looked at the old man sheepishly while Keisuke was just shocked seeing, once again, that there was absolutely no way to fool Fujiwara Bunta.

'Yes,' Ryosuke finally admitted.

'Impressive, very impressive,' Bunta said making Ryosuke almost blush at the old man's compliment, 'I suspected something like that, that's why I pushed Takumi into accepting.'

'Really? I'd have thought that you, of all people, wanted him to stay away from racing,' Ryosuke said.

'Nah, he's too miserable without his races…unfortunately, he's also too stubborn to accept whatever he's told so I had to let him realise by himself that missed the racing,'

'Yeah, that's what I thought too,' Ryosuke said.

'I've always said you're a smart kid,' Bunta said and Keisuke had to repress a chuckle seeing his older brother's expression of utter disbelief.

At five minutes to ten, Takumi found himself behind the wheel of the panda AE86 with Keisuke Takahashi's yellow FD lined up with him at the start line of the circuit.

He couldn't believe that, after so many years, about twelve if he wasn't mistaken, he'd find himself racing Keisuke all over again.

For the occasion, they had Ryosuke Takahashi himself standing in front of them, prepared to do the countdown.

Takumi revved the AE86's engine as he prepared himself for the start. He inserted the first gear and, just as he saw Ryosuke giving them the 'go' sign, he floored the accelerator pedal, hoping the car would manage to keep up with the FD at least until the first corner.

Since the race would last a whole ten laps, it didn't matter if Takumi was overtaken at the first corner, he could more than make up for it later or, at least, he hoped so. Just in case, he'd try his best to remain ahead after clearing that first corner.

Predictably enough, the FD's superior horse power meant that, at the end of the straight, Keisuke was actually ahead of him but Takumi, using his best drifting technique, managed to cut Keisuke's access to the corner forcing him to brake. Hardly fair but again, Keisuke was used to this and more from all his years as a professional racer.

With the Toyota ahead of him in the series of corners, Keisuke couldn't do anything else but to follow Takumi, waiting for the straighter section of the circuit where his car could easily manage a speed a lot higher than what the AE86 could produce.

'Geez, he's persistent!' Takumi said to himself as he saw Keisuke's latest attempt at trying to overtake him.

Not knowing the track at all was quite the handicap for Takumi but, again, he hadn't wanted to take up the chance Keisuke had offered him to let him train on the circuit during the week previous to the race.

It's alright, Bunta had said to him, a corner is a corner and a straight is a straight. You drive always the same way no matter where you drive.

This was true. He just needed to focus on the bit of the track he was driving on, forgetting about the rest.

Gosh this felt good, Takumi thought as he started feeling the old exhilarating sensation as his adrenaline levels climbing up while he pushed himself beyond his limits.

They raced like that for over half of the race, with the AE86 being chased and pushed by the FD until, maybe because Takumi was beginning to get tired or, just because he'd got distracted at the wrong moment, Keisuke managed to pass him at the end of the straight, just where his car's more powerful engine could make the difference.

'Crap!' Takumi shouted seeing the FD pulling dangerously fast away from him. This made him press the accelerator even more and, looking closely at the edges of the track, he saw that he could use the kerbs to his own advantage.

'What in the hell is he doing?' Iketani asked from the grandstand as he saw Takumi driving over one of the kerbs.

'I don't know,' Itsuki said.

'He's using the kerbs as though as they were the gutters from Mt. Akina,' Mako explained to the two men.

'What? But they're sticking out, not inwards,' Itsuki said.

'Yeah, but unless I'm very much mistaken, he can use them more or less the same way…he's just hooking the tyre in a different way,' Mako said while keeping her eyes glued to the two cars racing each other on the track.

'He's nuts,' Kenji sentenced.

'Yeah, he is, but he's just every bit as brilliant as I remembered,' Sayuki said, talking to her husband.

'Oh, I hope Fujiwara-san is right about Ryosuke-san,' Itsuki said and, seeing everyone's inquisitive looks, he elaborated, 'Takumi's old man thinks that the Takahashi are trying to get Takumi back into racing.'

'That'd be great,' Iketani said.

'Yes it would,' Mariko agreed.

'Oh my gosh, look at that!' Mako said and all six of them saw as Takumi's car, literally jumping off a kerb, managed to get so close to the FD's bumper that it almost hit it.

'Good, Takumi is at it once again,' Itsuki said smiling.

Meanwhile, down at the track, Bunta observed his son's evolutions as the two cars started their last lap.

'The last lap,' he said talking to himself.

'Yeah,' Ryosuke said nonetheless.

'Ryosuke, don't tell Keisuke I've said this but, I really hope Takumi wins,' Kyoko said making her daughter frown.

'Why do you want Daddy to lose?' little Ryoko asked.

'Because if he does, he'll be racing Akito's dad again and that would make Daddy very happy,' Kyoko explained crouching next to the little girl.

'Ah, I see,' Ryoko said.

Kyoko was going to say something else but then, they all saw Takumi as he tried the first and last of his attacks.

'Gosh, he's…' Ryosuke said and, he hadn't even finished the sentence when he saw the impossible happening right before his eyes:

As the two cars approached the last corner before the finish line, Takumi managed to literally stick the side of his car to Keisuke's FD, so close that the rear view mirrors actually grazed and, just as they were exiting the corner, and using the little acceleration power he had left, Takumi separated his car from the FD managing to cross the finish line with his car a full twenty centimetres ahead of Keisuke's.

'My god…he's won,' Kenji said.

'He's beaten Keisuke again,' Iketani said.

Itsuki no longer had the strength to speak so he just limited himself to follow his friends and wife down to where the Takahashi and the Fujiwara were.

'And you're rusty?' Keisuke exclaimed while he climbed out of his FD, 'if you're rusty then I'm a freaking mummy!' he shouted at Takumi as he too got out of his car.

'Yeah, well, I was lucky,' Takumi said and that earned him a smack on the back of his head by Bunta.

'That wasn't luck. That was all skill,' Ryosuke said, 'which is precisely what we need for our project.'

_To be continued…_


	22. Chapter Twenty One

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Twenty One_

Keisuke only remembered a moment when he'd ever had such mixed feelings as he had now. It had happened when the Kirin Takahashi Racing team had won the GT500 not even two weeks after Minami's death. He had then felt an excruciating sorrow that he knew could not even begin to be compared to the one Takumi had been feeling but, somewhere, deep down, in the part of his heart that wasn't numb because of the pain, he'd been extremely happy for the team's victory.

Now while he watched every one of Takumi's friends either congratulating him or, in the case of the kids, staring at him in complete and absolute awe, Keisuke felt that he really wanted to be happy that Takumi seemed to be almost back to his old self. However, that third defeat in a row stung a lot more than he'd believed possible.

'Wow, your father is amazing!' Seisuke said to a still speechless Akito.

'Yeah, he's beaten Uncle Keisuke! I can't believe it!' Kyosuke added as the eight year old kept looking at Takumi as if he'd just seen him for the first time ever.

'We're going to have to get him to teach us,' Seisuke said.

'Yes, that's, more or less, the idea,' Ryosuke said talking to both his sons.

'What? Is that what you want me to do here?' Takumi asked.

'Eventually, we'd like you to join the school as an instructor,' Keisuke said still looking a bit upset.

'Eventually?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, er…Aniki, you want to do the honours?' Keisuke asked his brother.

'Okay, Takumi, follow me,' Ryosuke said.

Takumi complied and he, with the rest of the people there, followed Ryosuke as he walked to a garage located near the circuit.

He opened the door and walked in so he could turn the light on.

'What the…' Takumi said.

'You like it?' Ryosuke said with a smile.

'Yeah…wow…' Takumi said, feeling himself short of breath.

'Why don't you take it for a spin?' Keisuke suggested making Takumi turn sharply to face him.

'Can I?'

'Yeah, you're going to be driving it a lot so,' Keisuke said.

'What? Why?' Takumi asked.

'Takumi, I'd hate to remind you that, while you might have won the race, you've lost our bet, therefore, you've given us your word that we could get you to help with our project,' Keisuke said frowning.

'Does this…car,' he said pointing at the vehicle he had in front of him, 'have anything to do with your project?'

'Takumi, this car has everything to do with our project,' Ryosuke said looking amused.

'Alright, I'm all ears,' Takumi said, finally giving in.

'We're planning on entering a very special race with this car,' Ryosuke explained.

'Which race is that?' Takumi asked.

'Well, if everything goes as we'd like, everyone who was part of the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team will, with this car, compete in next year's 24 hours of Le Mans,' Ryosuke announced.

'What?' Takumi asked not sure he'd heard right.

'We're trying to get the whole team back together to enter this beauty into the 24 hour race in Le Mans, France,' Keisuke explained.

'Yes, and since your father has already agreed to come back to the team, the only member we're still short of is you,' Ryosuke added.

'So, are you in?' Keisuke asked.

Takumi looked lost for a bit, he then stared at the astonishingly beautiful machine he had in front of him, still unable to guess which make it was then, looking at the Rotary Brothers, he said:

'Since I lost the bet, I don't really think I have an option, do I?'

Keisuke, with a smile, shook his head and said:

'Nope, I don't think you have.'

'Takumi, welcome back to the team,' Ryosuke said, his smile even wider than his brother's.

Everyone else, who up to then had witnessed the exchange in complete silence, started cheering.

'Dad, you're going to race again?' Akito asked his father.

'Yes, it looks like I am,' Takumi said tousling his kid's hair.

'YEEPIE!' Akito screamed happily.

'By the way, which make is this car?' Takumi asked and the two Takahashi brothers looked at each other and, smiling, Ryosuke said:

'It's a Mazda, what else?'

'Yeah, of course,' Takumi said shaking his head but, deep down, he felt that he had not been any happier in a really long time.

'They've only won the race once in 1991 and they're eager to win another one soon,' Ryosuke said.

'That's why we're getting sponsorship directly from them,' Keisuke added.

'Let's do it then,' Takumi said walking towards the car.

'Where are you going?' Keisuke asked.

'You told me I could take it for a spin, and that's what I'm going to do,' Takumi said climbing into the car.

'Fair enough. Everyone, move out,' Keisuke said warning everyone to get clear of the garage's entrance.

They all observed as Takumi got the car out and, after rolling it onto the track, he started accelerating, slowly at first, going a lot faster as he got more confident with the car.

'I think he likes it,' Bunta commented as he saw his son climbing back out of the car staring at it the way a kid looked at his brand new toy.

'Yes, he does,' Ryosuke said sounding pretty happy.

'It feels great!' Takumi said confirming what the two men had just said.

'I'm happy it does because, from now on, we're going to be holding practice sessions at least twice a week. We only have one year to prepare ourselves to cope with a 24 hour non-stop race,' Ryosuke said.

'Fine by me,' Takumi said.

'Yep, I'll be here too,' Keisuke said.

'Alright boys, let's all go and celebrate,' Akiko said intervening in the conversation for the first time.

'Celebrate?' Takumi asked.

'Yes, Kyoko and I have prepared some snacks in the meeting room, just in case,' Akiko explained with a smile.

'Mum, did you make some of those little fried sausages?' Seisuke asked his mother.

'Yes, and I also made some of the rice cakes you like so much,' Akiko said.

'Yummy!' Seisuke said enthusiastically then he started running towards the Centre's main building.

The other three kids and all the adults followed him.

Takumi looked at his son as he slept on the AE86's back seat while he drove it from Maebashi back home. He checked the rear view mirror to make sure his father was still behind him. He was, and he looked extremely bored as they drove way too slowly on the motorway.

So he'd done it. He was back at being a member of a racing team and, once again, he'd found himself in that position without having done anything else but driving as fast as he could.

Racing Keisuke had made Takumi feel like if he was ten years younger and, for the first time, he realised that he'd probably made a mistake quitting racing just like that. He should have just taken a break when Minami died instead of letting himself be drowned by the sorrow her loss had caused him.

Easier said than done, Takumi thought reasonably. However, he thought that, at long last, he had managed to get some of his determination and strength to start sorting out the mess he'd let his life become.

By having joined the team once again, he'd fixed one of his biggest problems. Now, he needed to take care of the next one on the list: his absolutely non-existent love life.

He had a date, and that was a very good start. Like he'd said, maybe with Natsuki it would end up not working but he figured that, by going out with her, he would at least start getting some much needed practice in the whole dating game.

'What a horrible way of thinking,' he admonished himself.

'What?' he heard Akito ask from the back of the car.

'Nothing son, go back to sleep,' Takumi said feeling slightly idiotic at being caught speaking aloud to himself.

The next day, and as they had previously agreed, Takumi drove his Toyota towards the flight of stairs that led to the ancient temple the city of Shibukawa had on top of a mountain.

As usual, and even if it was five minutes to noon, she was already there. He left the car parked out of the way so he could climb out of it to go and open the door for her.

'You look nice,' he said for it was true. Since it was almost the end of May and the days were getting warmer, she was wearing a short light yellow dress tied onto her small shoulders by two thin straps. Swallowing, Takumi realised that Natsuki wasn't wearing a bra under that dress. Which meant that…

'Thanks,' she said interrupting a very uncomfortable line of thought.

As she took her seat at the passenger's side, Takumi saw that she was also wearing a pair of high heeled white sandals. This was also new for, the Natsuki he knew never wore anything but trainers. Again, the Natsuki he knew had been only eighteen and, more than likely, she had started wearing heels shortly after that.

In any case, Takumi found the change to be a very welcome one for she looked even better than she had when they had dated and that was saying something…

'So, where are you taking me?' Natsuki asked.

'Er…I was thinking of going up to the Lake, they've opened a new restaurant there that you've probably never been to,' Takumi said.

'Alright,' she said happily.

They made it to the restaurant just as it had opened for lunch so, as they sat at their table, the place was virtually empty.

'This is great,' Natsuki said smiling, 'we have the whole place to ourselves.'

'Yeah, we do,' Takumi said suddenly finding himself without anything to talk about.

'Do you remember the last time we drove up here?' Natsuki asked as she read the restaurant's menu.

'Yeah,' Takumi said recalling the way they had hugged on the small dock by the lake.

'And, do you remember when you told me about your dreams?' Natsuki asked still not looking at him.

'Yeah,' Takumi repeated.

'Well, that day, I made myself a promise,' she said then, seeing as Takumi didn't say anything, she carried on, 'I promised myself that I would wait for you, in case we found each other again.'

'Mogi,' Takumi said.

'No, wait…' she said, this time looking at him, 'I know that you…well…that you may not be ready yet.'

'Mogi, I don't know if…'

'Look, this is my decision Takumi. I…' she said then, looking back at the menu, she whispered, 'I've been in love with you for over twelve years, I don't mind waiting a bit longer.'

Takumi was so taken aback by this sudden confession that he remained completely speechless.

'So, did you win the race last night?' she said now looking back at him startling with the abrupt way she'd changed the topic.

'Yeah,' he managed to say.

'Tell me all about it,' Natsuki said and, once more, Takumi felt like they had gone back in time as he proceeded to explain to her everything that had happened and what his new projects were.

As they finished their meal, they went for a walk and Natsuki explained to Takumi about her years in Tokyo, her group of friends from university and all the holidays they had organised together.

She was explaining to him about her trip to Barcelona as they drove back to Shibukawa.

'So, this is your new apartment?' Takumi asked as he parked near a brand new block of apartments.

'Yes, I bought it when the construction hadn't even started so I got a really good price for it,' Natsuki explained.

'Ah, I see,' he said suddenly feeling sad that he had to drop her for, if he had to be honest, he was having a really good time with Natsuki.

'You want to come up and take a look at it?' Natsuki offered making Takumi look at her.

'Mogi, I…'

'Will you ever call me by my name? she asked laughing softly.

'Er…'

'Please,' she added still smiling at him.

'Alright,' Takumi agreed, 'Natsuki,' he tried, 'if I come up, I…'

She then got serious and, blushing delicately, she interrupted him:

'I'd be okay, you know, if…if that happened.'

'Are you sure?' Takumi asked even though he felt like he really wanted to do it.

'Yes,' she said with a small voice.

Takumi took a deep breath before saying:

'Alright.'

Somehow, they managed to make it all the way to the apartment and, the minute they stepped inside it, Takumi took Natsuki's face in his hands and, with a passion he thought he'd long lost, he kissed her.

'Takumi…' she whispered breathlessly.

'Yeah?'

'The room…let's go to the room…'

'Yeah,' he said following her to her western style bedroom which, thankfully, came equipped with a double bed.

'Takumi, I haven't done this in…ages…' she confessed as they started removing their clothes.

'Neither have I,' Takumi said back, 'don't worry, it'll be fine…'

It was more than fine, Natsuki thought happily as the two collapsed onto each other, with Takumi falling quickly asleep in her arms.

Not being able to sleep, she stared at Takumi's gorgeous face and, as she tried to remove a strand of hair that had become stuck onto his forehead, she heard him make some incomprehensible sounds.

'What's that?' she whispered lovingly.

She heard him grunt sleepily and then, he mumbled:

'Minami…'

_To be continued…_


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Two_

Natsuki's hand froze a few centimetres away from Takumi's face as she felt herself going numb, probably because her brain was going in overdrive, as if it was desperately trying to prevent her from feeling the excruciating pain that simple word could cause her.

She swallowed in a futile attempt at steadying herself before putting her hand on Takumi's shoulder. She then shook him as softly as she could.

'Hey,' he said and, seeing her, Takumi started smiling.

'Takumi, sorry, but I think you should go home,' Natsuki said and she was impressed with herself seeing how very normal her voice sounded.

'Er…why?' he asked making Natsuki want to slap him as hard as she could.

'How would you explain to your son that you didn't sleep at home?' she asked instead.

'Ah, right,' he said finally sitting up showing to Natsuki his very naked chest. She had to look away.

'Er…I'm going to take a quick shower,' she said as she climbed out of her bed and ran to the bathroom where, once she stepped into the shower and turned the water on, she felt the first tears coming down, masked by the water.

Five minutes later, and hoping she looked reasonably normal, she found him already dressed, busy in front of the mirror in her room, trying to flatten his hair as much as possible, failing rather miserably.

'My hair is a mess,' he said smiling as she came back into the room.

'It's getting late,' she said pointing at a clock that was hanging from a wall nearby.

'Is it me or you're trying to get rid of me?' Takumi commented with a smirk.

'No, no,' she said and her voice started sounding a little bit higher pitched than usual, 'it's just that I don't want you to get yourself into trouble with Akito,' she explained.

'It's okay, he's an amazingly understanding kid,' Takumi said.

'Yeah, well, let's not test his patience too much, alright?' Natsuki said, mentally adding 'nor mine.'

'Alright. Why don't we go out for dinner tomorrow?' Takumi suggested.

'Dinner?'

'Yeah, Natsuki, I never intended for this to be our only date…' Takumi explained.

'Ah, right…well, tomorrow I can't. It's school day and I'll have loads to do,' Natsuki said and even to herself, that excuse sounded rather pathetic. She could have said she needed to wash her hair and it would probably have sounded a lot better.

'Okay, then, how about Tuesday?' Takumi proposed.

'Er…alright, I'll call you, okay?' she said and she started wishing he'd just go so she could get rid of the knot that was threatening with choking her.

He finally made his way to the apartment's door and, after kissing her softly, he said:

'Thanks for today Natsuki, it's been great.'

Natsuki could only nod for she knew that if she opened her mouth to say anything she would burst into tears, which was exactly what she did as soon as the sound of Takumi's steps faded away.

Holding herself to the corridor's wall, she somehow managed to make her way back into her bedroom and, not even bothering to put on her nightie, she collapsed on her bed and cried herself to sleep on a pillow that still carried his scent.

The next day, Itsuki observed his best friend as the two men drove to the Motorsports Centre for the first day of testing.

'Hey, someone's cheerful this morning,' Itsuki said seeing the huge smile on Takumi's face.

'Yeah,' Takumi said.

'That race was amazing,' Itsuki commented, 'no wonder you're so happy.'

'What?' Takumi asked with a confused expression.

'The race? You know, you versus Keisuke? You, beating the pants off Keisuke for the third time?' Itsuki explained frowning at his friend. He would have started wondering if maybe Takumi was losing his marbles if it wasn't because it was a matter of fact that Takumi was completely nuts.

'Ah, yeah,' he said.

'Uh-oh,' Itsuki said looking at his friend a bit more closely.

'What?'

'A-ha!' Itsuki exclaimed all the sudden, smiling widely as he did so.

'What?' Takumi asked frowning.

'The signs are all there. Oh yes!'

'Itsuki, what in the heck are you talking about?'

'You're lovesick! Ah! You are!' he said sounding almost indecently happy.

'Ah, that,' Takumi said.

'What? You are?' Itsuki said, his smiling quickly fading away as it got replaced by an expression of total disbelief.

'Well…I went out with Mogi…I mean, Natsuki yesterday,' he explained.

'WHAT? REALLY?' Itsuki shouted and Takumi just nodded, 'you need to tell me everything!'

Takumi, being strangely extrovert, explained to Itsuki all about his date with Natsuki, including the fact that he had felt that she was kicking him out of her house.

'Oh, she was just worried about Akito,' he said refusing to believe that Natsuki would actually want to get rid of Takumi.

'Yeah well, I'm actually looking forward to seeing her again,' Takumi said.

'You are?' Itsuki asked.

'Yes, I don't know why, but I felt…I don't know how I felt but I kind of liked being back with her, we spent several hours talking like we used to, you know, before,' Takumi replied trying to express his feelings in the best possible way.

'That's very good. Takumi, you deserve to be happy so don't feel guilty if you are,' Itsuki said getting unusually serious.

'I know, I'm working on that too,' Takumi said sincerely.

The two men finally arrived at the circuit and, as they parked their car, they realised that there was a lot more movement than usual.

In fact, there were several vans near the track as well as a whole lot of people: the old Kirin Takahashi Racing team.

'Hey Takumi!' Matsumoto said seeing Takumi there.

'Hi guys,' he just said waving at everyone.

'This is great! We're all back together!' Kenta said smiling happily making Takumi smile too seeing that Keisuke's old protégé had not changed a single bit.

'Alright people, let's get to work,' Ryosuke said, 'unfortunately I don't have that much time because I have a meeting just before lunch and Akiko won't be happy if I don't show up.'

That said, everyone started working and soon, Takumi was able to climb into the Mazda prototype they were preparing for the race and, after driving around for a couple of laps, he heard Ryosuke's voice over the radio:

'Takumi, you should come in, we need to check something.'

Argh, the team's radio! It had been a long time since he'd heard someone talk to him through it while he was driving.

'Sure, ah, by the way,' Takumi said, 'there's something weird about this engine.'

Ryosuke looked at Fumihiro and Matsumoto and smirked.

'Can you tell me what it is?'

'Yeah, it doesn't feel like a rotary,' Takumi said.

'That's because it's not,' Ryosuke said, 'for the 24 hours the rotaries are not allowed.'

'Why not?' Takumi asked.

'The FIA banned them after the first, and only victory by a rotary engine in Le Mans. They were concerned that it gave an unfair advantage the fact that rotary engines typically last longer than piston ones,' Ryosuke explained.

'Ah, alright, I'm coming in now,' Takumi said.

'Well done Takumi, I was wondering whether you'd be able to notice the difference,' Fumihiro said the minute Takumi got out of the car at the pit lane.

'Well, I'm not that rusty, you know,' Takumi said scratching the side of his head.

'If I hear the word rusty again someone's going to be drinking a lot of high octane,' Keisuke said frowning as he walked towards them.

Everyone started laughing but they stopped when they saw the way Fumihiro was looking at them.

'Hey, what's wrong?' Ryosuke asked his friend.

'Nothing,' he said, 'it's just that, seeing the whole team together, laughing…'

'Oh, our Fumi-chan's getting emotional!' Matsumoto said clearly taking the piss out of poor Fumihiro. That made everyone burst into a fit of laughter all over again.

It felt good being back, Takumi thought as he and Itsuki, who'd been watching their testing session from the grandstand, made their way back to the AE86.

'I'd love to take a spin with that car,' Itsuki said.

'Really? I can ask Ryosuke…'

'No, no! I'd crash it for sure…that thing goes way too fast for me,' Itsuki said putting his hands in front of him, shaking them as he spoke.

Takumi just laughed at him making Itsuki realise that his best friend was indeed almost back to normal.

Four days later, and seeing that she hadn't done so yet, Takumi picked up the phone at home and called Natsuki.

'Hello?' she said answering the phone.

'Hi, it's me,' he said.

'Ah, Takumi…I…was going to call you,' he heard her say and he noticed that her voice sounded a bit more than slightly panicky.

'Yes, well, I was wondering if you'd be free one of these days,' he just said.

'Er…I'm not sure, I'll need to check,' she said.

'Natsuki, is everything alright?' Takumi asked allowing himself to sound as concerned as he was.

'Yes, of course,' she said and the tone she used made Takumi realise she was clearly lying to him, he then heard her say, 'Look, I've got to go now, so I'll talk to you later, okay?'

'Sure,' Takumi replied.

Then, as he hanged up the receiver, he started thinking that there was something fishy in this whole thing and, having learned through experience, he knew that if Natsuki was acting this way, there had to be something very wrong.

'Oh no…' he thought as his head came up with what he thought was the most obvious conclusion: Natsuki had, once more, lied to him. There was no way she was single. After all, it was very hard to believe that such a beautiful woman had not been able to find a boyfriend in all these years…

With that thought in his mind, he grabbed the key of the AE86 and, after making sure his father would stay home to watch over Akito, he drove to the only place he was sure he'd be able to, eventually, see her: the block of apartments where she lived.

He hadn't been parked in front of the building for more than a few minutes when the first drops of rain started falling. For this reason, he was forced to stay in the car until, about an hour later, he saw Natsuki running down the street, probably trying to get home as fast as she could since she wasn't carrying an umbrella. He got out of his car and, not caring whether he got extremely wet, he walked towards her.

'Takumi!' she said out of breath due to all the running she had probably done.

'Natsuki, tell me one thing and, for once, tell me the truth,' he started his voice sounding clipped due to the badly contained anger.

'Takumi…' she said again, and to Takumi, her expression of sheer terror did nothing but confirm his worst suspicions.

'Are you seeing someone else?' he asked.

'W-what?' she stuttered, now looking completely astonished by his question.

'Just answer me!' he exclaimed angrily.

'T-tak…'

'Oh forget it, I'm going home,' Takumi said deciding he really didn't want to know then, as he took a couple of steps back to his car, she said, almost screaming:

'How dare you?'

That made him turn back to face her.

'HOW IN THE HECK DO YOU DARE?' she said now shouting and looking completely out of herself. Takumi had only seen her get this much angry once before: that day at Lake Akina's dock.

'I…'

'It should be me the one getting angry!' she screamed again.

'What?' he finally managed.

'It should be me the one who's mad at you,' she said, lowering her voice as it started to break up into sobs.

'Why?' Takumi asked.

'Why? Takumi…you…' then she walked towards him and, taking his left hand in hers, she said, 'this is why!'

Takumi looked at his own hand and saw his wedding ring there.

'And because on Sunday, after _we_ made love, you said _her_ name, not _mine_!' she said and even if her voice was shaking badly, Takumi clearly understood what she was telling him.

And he could not have felt any more like a piece of crap.

'What? I…'

'You said her name,' she repeated miserably, 'after we made love, you still said her name.'

'I'm sorry,' he finally said.

'No, I'm the one who's sorry. I thought I could do this…but I can't…'

'Natsuki.'

'Look, you must think you're the only one who thought his world collapsed when your wife died but, try to imagine how I felt when I found out that, after all the years I had been waiting for you, on my own, without allowing myself to fall in love with anyone else, you had had two girlfriends and you had actually married one of them. Takumi, try to imagine how I felt.'

'I didn't make you any promises,' he said.

'I know, and that's why I felt even more idiotic,' Natsuki replied.

'Natsuki, I still can't make you any promises but, know this, I really want to be with you now.'

'What?' Natsuki asked showing her profound disbelief in both her tone and her expression.

'Look, I think I will always love Minami. She was like an angel for me and she's the mother of my son, but I do think I could fall in love with you again. I just need to figure out a few things.'

'Well, when you figure it all out, call me,' she said bitterly.

'No, the point is, I'd like to do that together, with you,' Takumi said looking extremely serious.

'Why?' Natsuki asked.

'Because if I can't make it work with you, I don't think I'll manage with anyone else,' Takumi said sincerely.

Seeing that she wasn't saying anything, Takumi tried again:

'So, what do you say?'

She looked at him for a long while before nodding and, between her tears she said:

'Alright, you win. You always win.'

_To be continued…_


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Three_

Takumi followed the same routine he had ever since that rainy day at the end of May, some four months before and he found himself driving to the elementary school where his girlfriend Natsuki worked. He smiled at the thought that, these days, and because of her, he seemed to be going more often to school than when he was an actual student.

In any case, Takumi, and thanks to the seemingly infinite patience Natsuki had had with him, had grown more and more used to the idea of thinking of Natsuki as his girlfriend and, maybe, in the short to medium term, something more. To prove how extremely sure he was about the strength of their relationship, they were about to take their first major step as a couple.

'Hi,' she said climbing into the AE86 as he stopped near the school's entrance.

'Hi, did you have a nice day?' he said after kissing her.

'Yes, the kids learned the different colours today, one of them got a bit enthusiastic with his blue paint and I spent several minutes getting him clean enough so that he could go home,' she explained smiling fondly at the memory.

'It is beyond me how you can cope with those little monsters. I shiver at the thought of handling more than one Akito at the same time, and he's my son. I can't even imagine how you manage with twenty five of them who aren't even related to you,' Takumi commented.

'They're not little monsters,' she protested while laughing softly, then seeing the sceptical way he was looking at her, she added, 'alright, they're not always little monsters.'

'I rest my case,' he said as he started the car.

'Er…Takumi, are you sure you want to do it today?' Natsuki asked as they drove to the school back to the Fujiwara Tofu Shop.

'Yes, I think it's an excellent occasion,' Takumi said.

'I know, it's just that telling Akito about us the same day you introduce me to your friends…'

'I've told you before, Akito doesn't mind me having a girlfriend, he's said so numerous times. Besides, he already knows you and he likes you. And, about the Takahashi, they already know of you, this is just a way so you meet them…'

'Yes but it's Ryoko's birthday…it's a family moment…' she objected.

This made Takumi look at her and, very seriously, he said:

'Natsuki, for some reason, the Takahashi consider me as though as I were family and they know that I've known you for a lot longer than I've known any of them, therefore, I should think that they'll easily extend the privilege to you too.'

'Takumi,' she said with a very small but happy voice.

'Now, did you manage to find anything suitable for a six year old girl?' Takumi asked sounding as if he considered the choice of Ryoko's present a more critical matter than introducing her as his girlfriend to his son and his whole group of friends.

'Yes, don't worry,' she said with a smile.

'Is it, like, girly and stuff?' he asked.

'Yes, it's extremely girly, I actually liked it so much that I considered buying one for me too,' she confessed.

'Really? What is it?'

'Hey, it's a birthday present, it's supposed to be a surprise,' she said.

'Yeah, but it's not my birthday so I should be allowed to know,' he complained.

By the time they arrived at the house Takumi called home, he still hadn't managed to get Natsuki to tell what she had got for little Ryoko.

'Come in,' he said opening the shop's door for her and, nervous as she was, Natsuki nearly tripped over the small step that led from the shop into the actual house.

'Good afternoon Fujiwara-san,' she said seeing Takumi's father there.

'Natsuki-chan, how many times do I have to ask you to call me Bunta?' the old man said but, the kind smile on his face made sure Natsuki didn't take it as a reprimand.

'Alright, Bunta-san,' she said knowing perfectly well that she would repeat the same mistake the next time she saw Takumi's father.

'Dad? Hurry up! We're going to be late!' Akito said entering the room in a rush then, seeing Natsuki there, he stopped and said, 'Hi Natsuki, you're coming with us too?'

Natsuki looked at Takumi and, crouching next to the kid, she said:

'If you don't mind, I'd love to.'

'Yeah, it's cool, this way you can keep my dad busy so that he stops bossing me around,' the almost six year old said not realising the way an adult could interpret that sentence.

'Akito, before we go, there's something we'd like to tell you,' Takumi said sitting down near the living room's table. Natsuki copied him and, seeing all three adults sitting down, made Akito sit down too.

'Alright, what's up?' the kid asked looking so serious that Natsuki wanted to laugh but that, of course, would have been most inappropriate at that precise moment.

'Well, you know that Natsuki and I have been good friends for a long time, don't you?' Takumi said.

'You guys are together now?' Akito asked startling both Takumi and Natsuki while Bunta just chuckled.

'Well, yes,' Takumi replied.

'Like Uncle Itsuki and Aunt Mariko?' the kid asked again, just to be sure he understood the concept.

'Yes, more or less,' Takumi said.

'Ah, alright,' he said getting up, clearly considering the matter settled.

'Akito, you don't mind that I'm your father's girlfriend?' Natsuki asked with her best elementary school teacher's voice.

'Nope,' he said, 'you're nice enough and, besides, you might be my teacher next year so, since you're Dad's girlfriend, you'll give me higher marks,' the kid said with a cheeky smile.

'Akito, if I am your teacher next year, I'll make you study harder so your Dad's happy with your report card,' Natsuki explained.

'Ah, that sucks, you better not be my teacher next year then,' Akito said getting very serious again, making all three adults laugh.

'Go and get your jumper, we really should go or we'll definitely be late,' Takumi said and, as Akito went back upstairs to his room, Bunta said:

'Natsuki-chan, I should try to warn you about the kind of scoundrel my son is, but you already know him well enough so I just hope you know what you're doing.'

'I do know, Fujiwara-san, but thanks for the warning,' she said smiling.

'Hey! I'm here you know,' Takumi protested crossing his arms and frowning.

Bunta and Natsuki looked at each other and started laughing making Takumi feel grateful to see his son finally coming down the stairs.

The three of them climbed into the AE86 with Akito exceptionally giving up his seat at the front for Natsuki, and as they drove to Maebashi, Takumi couldn't help but to think that, at long last, he finally had something vaguely resembling a normal family.

Takumi parked the car outside the set of two huge houses that belonged to the Rotary Brothers and their families and, he had not even had enough time to get out of the car himself that he saw Akito scrambling from the back seat, almost going over his father to jump out of the car.

'Someone's eager to see the birthday girl,' he teased him but Akito just ignored his father.

'Hello there!' Kyoko said opening the door from the house that belonged to her and Keisuke.

'Hello Kyoko,' Takumi said as Akito just ran inside the house, 'sorry about that.'

'It's fine, he's probably dying to see the boys,' Kyoko said and Takumi didn't bother correcting her.

'Kyoko, this is Natsuki, my girlfriend,' he said, and the stress he put in that last word caused Natsuki to feel a very warm sensation in her chest.

'Ah, wow, I'm…I'm very pleased to finally meet you,' Kyoko said smiling at Natsuki.

'Me too,' Natsuki said returning the smile.

'Oh, come on in, make yourselves at home,' Kyoko said walking towards the huge living room which, right now, was packed with birthday decorations and multicoloured balloons.

'You have a really nice house,' Natsuki commented.

'Thanks,' Kyoko said smiling, then, as Natsuki, Takumi and herself reached the area of the room where Ryosuke, Keisuke and Akiko were, she said, 'guys, Takumi's here…and he's brought a very welcome guest with him.'

'Hi guys, this is my girlfriend Natsuki,' he repeated and, the more he said it in public, the better it sounded to him.

'Oh, wow,' Akiko said almost copying her sister-in-law's reaction. She too got up from the sofa where she was playing with Ryoko and, giving Natsuki a quick hug, she said, 'welcome to our home.'

'So, you're the famous Natsuki,' Keisuke said walking towards her, extending his hand so she could shake it.

'We finally get to meet you! We were beginning to think that Takumi was making you up,' Ryosuke said smiling in the same kind way as the rest of his family.

Natsuki felt so happy she could have cried but, as the party started, she became so engaged in the conversation that she forgot she was supposed to be nervous.

'Akito, come here one second,' she said, taking with her the paper bag which contained Ryoko's birthday present. Taking the chance that the girl in question was being distracted by her father, Natsuki told Akito about the present she'd got and suggested him what he had to say to impress the little girl.

Soon, and after Ryoko blew out all six candles from her enormous birthday cake, she started getting all her presents: from her parents, she got a new pair of ice skates which she spent several minutes examining before putting them aside to open her next present.

'Oh wow!' she said as she revealed a fully functional laptop for kids that contained several programs to help her learn the alphabet and several other things.

'I'll teach you how to use it, okay?' Ryosuke said.

'Yes, thanks!' the little girl exclaimed hugging first her uncle and then her aunt.

'Aniki, Akiko, you're not planning on turning my daughter into a smartass like you two, are you?' Keisuke asked frowning worriedly.

'Hey, my daughter is already smart,' Kyoko complained.

The next present was the one Ryoko clearly appreciated the least: from her cousins, she got a radio controlled miniature of a red Mazda SE3P.

'Wow, that's great!' Keisuke said and no one in the room doubted who'd be the one playing with the toy a lot more often than Ryoko.

Finally, it came Akito's turn to give Ryoko her present and, as he handed the bag to her, he said with an extremely small voice:

'You know…I got you this because…well, you know…you like ice and all, I mean, the ice skating stuff…'

The little girl blushed a little when she took the bag from him and, opening it, she revealed a soft penguin shaped toy, so adorable that even the two women of the house gasped in awe.

'You…like it?' Akito asked biting his lower lip.

The girl seemed to be speechless as she looked at the penguin and Akito started frowning thinking that maybe Natsuki had got it all wrong.

'I love it,' Ryoko said hugging the toy, 'thank you Akito-kun!'

Akito's face lit up in happiness and, as they looked at each other across the room, Takumi mouthed a 'thanks' to Natsuki who just shrugged and smiled back at him.

'Takumi sure looks happy now,' Kyoko commented to her sister-in-law as both women went to the kitchen to get some more crisps for the kids.

'Yes, he does,' Akiko said, 'I'm glad Natsuki has managed to hold on in there and has given her unconditional support to him. He's lucky to have her.'

'I can't even begin to imagine how much hard work it must have taken her to get him to be this happy,' Kyoko commented.

'Kyoko, I don't think any relationship is easy. Just remember how hard it was for us at the beginning and how hard it is still today to keep our family together and happy,' Akiko said.

'Yeah, that's true,' Kyoko said, not really wanting to remember how unhappy she'd been when she'd believed that Keisuke would never love her the way she loved him.

'Hello, do you need a hand in here?' Natsuki said coming into the kitchen.

'Yes, grab a couple of these bags, if you please,' Akiko said smiling with her best, reassuring smile she had perfected throughout her years as a doctor.

'Are you having fun?' Kyoko asked as the three women headed back to the living room.

'Yes, I am,' Natsuki said.

'Good and, by the way, thanks for the penguin, my daughter really loved it,' Kyoko said.

'I…' Natsuki started feeling a bit embarrassed.

'Don't worry, it'll be our secret. There's no way in hell Takumi could have come up with such a brilliant idea on his own, is there?' Kyoko asked winking as she spoke.

'No, there isn't,' Natsuki agreed smiling.

'Yeah, our men aren't the most sensitive guys in the world, are they?' Akiko said and Natsuki felt something special hearing someone referring to Takumi as 'her man.'

By the time the party ended, the Takahashi invited Takumi, Natsuki and Akito to join them for one last family barbeque before the weather would get too cold.

All three, as the family they were slowly becoming, accepted gladly, especially Akito who, to his immense joy, had noticed that Ryoko had not let go of the penguin since he'd given it to her and, of course, could not wait to see the little girl again.

As Takumi was driving them back to Shibukawa, Akito made a very shocking question:

'Natsuki?'

'Yes Akito?' Natsuki said.

'Are you going to be my new Mum? Now that you're with Dad and all.'

Natsuki looked at Takumi who, even in the semi darkness of the car, saw her frowning.

'Would you like that?' Takumi asked his son.

'Yep, she's great!' Akito said remembering how happy Ryoko had been with the present Natsuki had chosen for him.

'Well then, you should ask Natsuki if she wants the job,' Takumi said, looking briefly at Natsuki smiling at her in a very encouraging way.

'Do you want to be my new Mum?' Akito asked sounding rather hopeful.

Natsuki looked at Takumi then she turned to face Akito and said:

'I'll be more than happy to.'

'Great,' Akito said and, with that, he seemed to settle the matter.

Then he started asking both adults all sorts of questions about the average penguin's life.

_To be continued…_


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Four_

The bed was almost entirely covered with carefully folded t-shirts, a couple of freshly ironed shirts and several pairs of trousers. Takumi stared at all the garments while frowning, as though as he was deep in thought.

'Natsuki,' he said as his girlfriend was picking some of his socks and underpants from the wardrobe, 'are you really sure I'm going to need all of these clothes? I mean, I'm only going to be away for about a week.'

'Oh yes. And this is not all, I still have to get a couple of jumpers and a raincoat, just in case,' she said appearing from behind the wardrobe's door.

'Ah, okay,' Takumi said knowing better than to argue with Natsuki.

'Why don't you go and get the suitcase?' she suggested.

'Where is it?' Takumi asked.

'It's in the garage, near the boxes we haven't unpacked yet,' she said.

'Alright, I'll go and get it then,' he said and, walking out of their bedroom, he made his way to the garage of their brand new house, the one he and Natsuki had bought after she had sold her apartment, not even six months before.

About an hour later, and after Takumi's suitcase was all packed up, Natsuki seemed to be finally happy.

'Okay, this is done,' she said, 'now, you do have all your documents with you, don't you?'

'Yep, passport and the international driving permit,' he said showing both documents to her.

'What about the FIA license?' Natsuki asked frowning.

'Crap, I almost forgot that one,' Takumi said rushing to his bedside table and taking the card from one of the drawers.

'It only took Ryosuke a couple of months for him to get it for you,' Natsuki said a tad on the sarcastic side making Takumi smirk.

'Mum?' they heard Akito shouting from the living room.

'Yes?' Natsuki replied back.

'Have you seen my Drift Bible DVD?'

'Yes honey, it's on top of the TV, where you left it last night,' she shouted back.

'Ah, yeah, I see it, thanks!'

'No problem,' she replied laughing softly.

Takumi observed the whole scene and smiled happily. Ever since Natsuki had re-entered his life a bit more than a year ago, Takumi had decided to put his past behind him by removing his wedding ring, keeping it with Minami's and the engagement ring he'd bought for her after proposing. All three rings now rested inside a small black box at the bottom of one of his drawers.

Takumi didn't mind that Akito called Natsuki 'Mum' in the slightest for she was doing a wonderful job at being like a mother to his son and, since the boy had ended up in a different class from the one Natsuki taught, all three of them finally formed the family Takumi had not had when growing up.

Takumi secretly hoped that, sometime soon, he and Natsuki could give Akito yet another thing he'd never had: a little brother or sister.

But first things first, he still had a race to win!

Natsuki woke up very early on Monday morning and, giving him a kiss, she woke Takumi up.

'Good morning,' she whispered.

'What time is it?' he asked sounding still very sleepy.

'It's five thirty,' she replied getting up so she could go and make breakfast.

He got up too, had a quick shower and got dressed and, after having one last family breakfast together, he kissed Natsuki and said goodbye to an only half awake Akito. He then climbed into his car to drive to his father's tofu shop so he could leave the AE86 there, get the GC8 and drive to the Takahashi.

'You're late,' Bunta said the minute Takumi had parked and locked his car, just outside the shop.

'Good morning to you too,' Takumi said sarcastically as he loaded his suitcase next to his father's in the trunk and climbed into the car.

He still couldn't believe that Ryosuke had managed to convince Bunta to, not only close his shop for a whole week but also, and this was the most unbelievable part, go with them to France, leaving Japan and its wonderful cuisine behind.

Even though they had left Shibukawa a bit behind schedule, with Bunta driving his Subaru, they got to the Takahashi fifteen minutes before their agreed time.

'Good morning,' Ryosuke said as he loaded his suitcase into the family's van, 'Keisuke's almost ready so we should arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare.'

'Can't wait,' Bunta said ironically as he moved his and his son's suitcases to the van.

'Fujiwara-san, I am told that there are good Japanese restaurants in France too,' Ryosuke said trying to make the poor man feel better. Instead, Bunta looked at Ryosuke in a way that made the younger man wish he had stayed quiet.

'Hey, sorry…' they heard Keisuke arrive followed by his wife.

'Come on Keisuke, let's get moving,' Ryosuke said as Bunta finished parking his Subaru inside the Takahashi's garage, where it would remain for the entire week.

Finally, and after the two senior Takahashi brothers said their goodbyes to Akiko, they climbed into the MPV and they made their way to Narita with Kyoko behind the wheel.

Keisuke's wife dropped them all at the airport an hour later and, after kissing her husband, she said:

'Have fun for me too!'

'I will,' Keisuke said and, with this, Kyoko left to go back home.

'This way,' Ryosuke said and, as they walked into the terminal, they spotted the rest of the guys who, wearing the same black, white and yellow jacket, were quite difficult to miss.

'Hey!' Fumihiro said walking towards them.

'I'm so excited!' Kenta said after greeting Keisuke, 'this is the first time I go to France!'

'What's so exciting about that?' Bunta said so dryly that poor Kenta became as red as a pepperoni.

'Er…'

'Kenta, just ignore him,' Takumi very wisely advised as he followed the rest of the guys to the check in desk.

Exactly two and a half hours later, the whole team was embarked and soon, they took off from Tokyo International Airport to, some twelve hours later, land in the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France.

From there, they would take the famous TGV, the French equivalent of their Shinkansen, which would take them straight into the Ville de Le Mans.

Hopefully, by the time they would arrive, their Mazda prototype, together with their tools and the rest of the equipment would be at the circuit waiting for them to unpack them. Their French adventure had just started!

On Sunday evening, six days after the boys departure, Kyoko heard the doorbell ring.

'I'll get it,' she said as she walked towards the door to see Natsuki and a very impatient looking Akito standing behind it.

'Hey, how are you?' Kyoko said hugging Natsuki briefly after taking the box of sweets the younger woman was carrying with her. Akito, as usual, had already run into the house to go and play with his two friends Kyosuke and Seisuke and their cousin Ryoko.

'I'm fine, a bit nervous after last night,' Natsuki replied and Kyoko, who had also seen the big accident at the start of the race, understood her very well. Both of their men were risking their lives as they spoke and this had created some sort of bond between the two women.

'Don't worry,' Kyoko said, 'both Keisuke and Takumi know what they're doing, I doubt they'll get involved in any crash as bad as the one we saw last night.'

'Yeah, I know,' Natsuki said trying to smile as bravely as she could.

Shortly after their arrival the living room was full of people: Itsuki and a six months pregnant Mariko, Iketani and his wife Mako, together with their eighteen months old son and Kenji, his wife Sayuki and their year old little girl all joined Natsuki, Akito and the Takahashi to sit in front of the huge TV screen.

'I hope you'll have enough food here because I'm not getting up to go to the kitchen for anybody,' Kyoko said as soon as she found the channel which was showing the Le Mans race.

'Yeah, if anyone wants anything else, feel free to get up and get it yourselves,' Akiko added.

'That's Dad!' Akito suddenly said, seeing Takumi as he climbed inside the car Keisuke had just vacated.

'Yeah, and that's my Daddy!' Ryoko exclaimed.

'Shush, both of you,' Kyoko said trying to figure out in which position the car was.

'This is unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen,' the TV commentator said, 'the youngest team on the grid, the one no one would have bet a yen on, it's actually leading the race. Yes, you've heard it right: the Takahashi Racing Team is currently leading the race with Fujiwara Takumi, the famous racer, behind the wheel…'

They all held their breath after hearing this.

'…you may remember Fujiwara also for his brief but intense marriage to the pop star Mina-chan who tragically…'

At this point, for some reason, the TV seemed to lose its audio.

'Oops…sorry, hold on, I'll try to put it back on,' Kyoko said while pretending to fumble with the remote.

'It's okay,' Akito said voicing the very thing Natsuki herself was about to say.

Kyoko looked at them both and, pressing the mute button again, the volume came back on. Thankfully though, the commentator had moved into describing the technical specifications of the prototype Takumi was driving, in particular, about the Judd unit that powered the Mazda.

The group of people spent the following three hours literally glued to their seats with their eyes focused on the TV as they watched the prototype with the number 86 going around the circuit, lap after lap until, with only half an hour to go, something weird happened.

For some reason, Takumi's car started going a lot slower than it had been going up to that moment.

'What the…' Iketani said getting up so suddenly that he almost made his son fall of the couch.

'What's wrong with the car?' Kyoko said sounding almost hysterical.

'Be quiet so we can hear it!' Natsuki complained.

They all held their breath once more hoping the commentator would explain what in the heck had happened to Takumi's car.

'Dear spectators, this is unreal! It seems like there's a problem with one of the tyres! What's the team going to do?'

'Oh for Christ's sake!' Akiko said taking the remote from Kyoko's hand, turning the volume back off.

'What are you doing?' Kyoko asked thinking her sister-in-law had lost it.

'I can't hear this, it's getting on my nerves!' she almost screamed.

'Oh, pull yourself together,' Kyoko said, 'you're a freaking doctor!' she added snatching the remote from Akiko so she could put the volume back on.

'…this is absolutely unbelievable, Fujiwara has just entered the pit lane and, oh yes, it seems the team's preparing a tyre! They're going to replace the tyre with only twenty minutes of race to go!'

Akiko covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes showing to Kyoko that doctors could get very nervous too.

'And he's off, he's off again, ladies and gentlemen!' the commentator shouted happily.

Twenty minutes later, and even though Takumi had re-entered the circuit in second position, he did a series of flying laps which allowed him to get behind the new race's leader, a black and white Audi.

He chased the Audi lap after lap, towards the finish line and, as they got to the very last corner, and when everyone else started believing that the Audi would win, Takumi, in one of his classic kamikaze-like manoeuvres, managed to enter the corner just a hair before the Audi, then, drifting all the way across, Takumi cut the opponent's access forcing him to slow down and, as they faced the finish line, Takumi seemed to want to literally take off with the Mazda.

As Takumi took the chequered flag with only half of his car ahead of the Audi, the commentator first, then the whole room, and probably the entire country exploded with the joy of seeing a Japanese car crossing the line of the 24 hours of Le Mans in first position.

'HE'S DONE IT! FUJIWARA'S DONE IT!' the TV commentator kept shouting.

Everybody in the Takahashi's living room had gone completely mental. There were people crying, people laughing, people doing both things at the same time.

Needless to say it, the entire team were welcomed back into Japan like heroes and, for this reason, it took Takumi a long time before he could get rid of all the journalists and photographers so he could go back home.

'Dad, can you look after Akito for a bit tonight?' Takumi asked his father as the two drove back to Shibukawa.

'Sure, are you going out with Natsuki?'

'Yes,' Takumi just said.

After picking up the AE86, they arrived at Takumi's house and, as Natsuki and Akito opened the door to welcome him back, Takumi said:

'Natsuki, please wait for me in the car, I'll be with you in a minute.'

'Where are we going? You've just arrived…'

'I know, don't worry, just trust me, alright?' Takumi said.

'Okay,' Natsuki said walking towards the Toyota.

'Wish me luck,' Takumi said talking to his son.

'I think we should wish her luck,' Bunta said as he took his grandson's hand and walked him back into the house.

Takumi, using an art he'd perfected throughout the years, ignored his father and walked towards his car, climbed into it and off they went.

'Where are we going?' Natsuki repeated.

'It's a surprise,' Takumi replied, 'so, please close your eyes.'

She obeyed and Takumi, driving as carefully as he did when he had the tofu inside the trunk, took them all the way up Mt Akina and drove towards its lake.

Only when he had stopped as close as possible to the shore, he asked Natsuki to open her eyes.

'What, this is…'

'Yep, come with me,' Takumi said getting out of the car and, as Natsuki did the same, he started walking towards the small wooden dock they both knew only too well.

'Takumi,' she said as they stepped on it.

'Natsuki, thirteen years ago, you made yourself a promise while I told you about my dreams. Do you remember?'

'Of course I remember,' Natsuki said.

'Well, can you tell me what you promised?'

'Yes,' Natsuki said, 'I promised I would wait for you forever.'

Takumi nodded and then, going down on his knee, he said:

'Well, I'd like to make you a promise too: you don't have to wait anymore, I'm here, to stay with you for the rest of our lives, if you'll have me.'

Natsuki started seeing Takumi through a curtain of tears.

'Will you marry me Natsuki?' he said offering her a tiny box.

'Of course,' she said collapsing on her knees too so she could hug him.

Takumi kissed her and, once more, he was grateful fate had decided to give him a second chance, also because he thought that, this time, he'd done a much better job at proposing.

_To be concluded…_


	26. Epilogue

**Programmed Lives – Third Stage**

_Epilogue_

Gunma – Spring 2020

Akito looked around himself as he got ready to start the race. He knew his kart was the best in the whole grid for he had had the best possible team of mechanics and test drivers working on it non-stop until they had all decided that the kart was up to their standards.

The fourteen year old smiled for he knew very well how extremely high those standards were for his father, Takumi Fujiwara, his grandfather Bunta and the original set of Takahashi brothers, Ryosuke and Keisuke.

All four men were there ready to help in the highly unlikely case anything went wrong with the kart. Akito knew that, sitting somewhere at the grandstand were the rest of his family and all of their friends.

He envied his friend Kyosuke for he had just passed his driving test and was now able to drive road cars legally. Akito knew that Kyosuke would wait until his brother Seisuke would get his driving license so the two of them could form a street racing team together. The two had already chosen its name: the Golden Arrows.

Akito hoped that, when he got his license, he'd be allowed to join them too.

As the race started, Akito didn't have time to think of anything anymore other than focus on the empty track ahead of him. His kart, of course, was on pole position and he started the race slamming onto the accelerator pedal as to leave as much space between his vehicle and the one behind him.

Driving the kart was fun, he could do pretty much whatever he wanted with it and, as he steered to take a right turn, he felt the pull from the G-forces. He loved that sensation almost as much as he loved driving.

Happy to see that the kart was responding to his touch as he liked it, he decided to push it even more and, by the time they finished the fourth lap out of the twenty this race lasted, he had nobody behind him and he had already reached the kart in last position.

'Sorry mate, but I have to do it,' he muttered to himself as he overtook the kart in front of him, effectively eliminating him from the race.

Fifteen more karts to go, he thought and, even if he knew it would be impossible to overtake all sixteen karts, his grandfather Bunta had always insisted that, in order to win, one had to believe that there was nothing impossible, just challenges that were a bit harder than the others.

With five laps to go, he saw his father making a sign with his hand asking him to take it easy. This made Akito smirk. Typical of his father to do that: telling him to take it easy as he was enjoying himself.

However, Akito knew better than to think that his father really meant that. Takumi knew his son well and he knew that, by asking him to slow down, Akito would do the exact opposite.

In fact, as he crossed the finish line, Fujiwara Akito had managed to eliminate five more of his opponents while putting a whole forty five seconds between him and the kart immediately behind him.

'Mum, Dad! I've done it! I've won the Junior Championship!' the boy screamed as he jumped out of his kart.

'I am so very happy for you,' Natsuki said hugging him as Akito saw his father and grandfather smiling at him proudly.

'One day, I'll win the Junior Championship too,' Haruko, Akito's six year old sister, said.

'Of course you will,' Akito said smiling at the little girl.

'Well done mate,' Kyosuke said throwing a friendly punch at him.

'Yeah, that was very impressive,' Seisuke said agreeing with his brother.

Akito smile got even wider as he saw her walking up to him:

'I'm very happy for you,' Ryoko said smiling the way that made Akito's heart go crazy.

'Er…thanks,' he managed to say.

'What's going on in here?' Keisuke said seeing the way his precious daughter and Takumi's son were looking at each other.

'Nothing,' Akito hurried to say while visibly swallowing. Ryoko just blushed quite violently and looked down at the ground.

'Ah no! No way!' Keisuke exclaimed making everybody look his way, 'Ryoko, anyone but him!' he shouted pointing at Akito.

'Dad,' a mortified looking Ryoko said.

'Takumi, I'm warning you: if your son goes anywhere near my daughter I won't be responsible of my actions,' Keisuke said shaking his finger as he pointed it towards his former team mate.

Everyone laughed out loud. Well, everyone except three people: Akito looked as though as he wanted to disappear, Ryoko was glaring at her father while Keisuke was doing the same but looking at Takumi's son.

A few hours later, it was the first hours of the morning as the sound of screeching tyres disrupted the peace in Mt Akina.

An old Subaru GC8 was making it all the way down from the summit drifting through every single corner of the mountain pass. Going at a nearly suicidal speed, the car got to the bottom of the pass in no time at all and, as it reached the area where the city started, its driver decided to stop.

'So, how did I do?' Akito asked from behind the wheel of the Subaru.

'Not bad, your technique's improving,' Takumi said from the passenger side.

'And?' Akito said frowning for he had noticed that his father wasn't entirely happy.

'Well, when I was your age, I used to make it in half the time. And I was driving the AE86.'

Akito felt like crying: he had done his very best, taking risks he usually never took because he had been trying to impress his father and now this…

Taking a deep breath which fuelled him with brand new determination, he said:

'Alright, let's go back up and try again.'

Takumi smiled briefly before saying:

'Alright, let's do it, but be careful if you hit grandpa's car he's going to kill you.'

'I know Dad, I know,' Akito said, 'why don't you two let me drive the AE86 instead?'

Takumi looked at his son for a while before shaking his head.

'You're still too young for that car, you would end up crashing it and then I'd kill you,' Takumi said.

'I get it,' Akito said pouting as he restarted the GC8.

Akito promised to himself that, before he would get his driving license, he would drive Mt Akina's downhill with his father's AE86 and would beat his father's record with it.

_See you next stage..._


End file.
